‘Irreversible’: The Role of Digitization to Repurpose State Records of Repression

Abstract

1Since mid-2005, archivist-activists at the Historical Archive of the National Police of Guatemala have been digitizing a century's worth of previously suppressed police records so as to protect, mobilize and provide access to them -23 million pages to date. We find that digitization amplified the staff's repurposing of the archive to serve victims of human rights violations. Digitization enhances short-and long-term safeguards for the archive's physical integrity, probative value and enduring accessibility, but has required critical human factors and institutional solidarity, most notably partnerships with international donors and allied organizations, and Guatemalan nongovernmental organizations. Finally, technology offers a lens to analyze the persistent challenges to promoting truth and justice in Guatemala. We show how simple, often ad hoc approaches to digitization developed under political urgency can have an irreversible impact when used to amplify a unified mission driven by a committed community of archival workers. throughout this project. We extend special thanks to our University of Texas (UT) colleagues, especially everyone on the LLILAS Benson digital initiatives team, as well as all involved in hosting the celebratory event between the AHPN and UT in July 2018. Finally, we are indebted to Kentaro Toyama and Kirsten Weld for valuable input and support during the research and writing process. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for thoughtful feedback.

Platformizing the Past: The Social Media Logic of Archival Digitization

“…However, the logic of connectivity may raise questions as to the politics inherent in digitization processes, particularly concerning the impact of mass digitization on local cultural knowledge (Guberek et al, 2019;Thylstrup, 2019). The post-custodial approach, developed by critical librarians and archivists, seeks to establish digital archiving practices that both redistribute resources and empower communities as owners of their documentary heritage (Alpert-Abrams et al, 2019).…”

“…It emphasizes that data are never truly raw; rather, they are always produced, curated, preserved, and presented within specific contexts. In this spirit, Guberek et al (2019) highlighted the significant, often irreversible effects of simplistic and expedient digitization methods, particularly when implemented under conditions of armed conflict and human rights crises. Complementing this, Thylstrup (2019) observed that mass digitization may give rise to new cultural memory institutions on the web.…”

"We come together as one...and hope for solidarity to live on"

“…There are a multitude of theoretical framings for these archival practices. For example, in community archives the communities about whom the archive is developed play a central role in its development, and in activist archives the practice of archiving or tagging artefacts in the archive may be seen as activism in itself (see, for example, [30,31,56]). Each of these approaches aims to highlight different aspects of justice issues, and are made up of extensive and nuanced bodies of work related to theoretical, methodological, as well as practical explorations which we do not detail herein.…”

“…Our work sits alongside this kind of justice-oriented work, which aims to promote the development of archives that are explicitly political and antiviolent [3,25], and that place important aspects of community, activism, and justice at their core [30,31,56]. Allard and Ferris have written about social justice and community mobilisation through participatory approaches to archiving in their Digital Archives and Marginalized Communities Project [3].…”

Analysis of social barriers to sustainable innovation and digitisation in supply chain

“…The literature describes a number of obstacles in human rights organisations, including children and forced labour, low or poor remuneration, sexual harassment, and the safety of women workers, which are essential within the justice system (Guberek et al, 2019 ). Some managers fear that if digitalisation were implemented, the issues would emerge and jeopardise the corporate image (Larsson, 2021 ).…”