A Neo-Documentalist Lens for Exploring the Premises of Disciplinary Knowledge Making

Authors

Lisa Börjesson, Department of ALM, Uppsala UniversityFollow
Nicolo Dell'Unto, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund UniversityFollow
Isto Huvila, Department of ALM, Uppsala UniversityFollow
Carolina Larsson, Humanities Laboratory, Lund UniversityFollow
Daniel Löwenborg, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala UniversityFollow
Bodil Petersson, Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus UniversityFollow
Per Stenborg, Department of Historical Studies, University of GothenburgFollow

Abstract

This article applies a neo-documentalist approach to explore disciplinary documentation and document practices, assumed to condition disciplinary knowledge-making. The aim is to show how conceptions and materialities of what counts as documentation and documents are intertwined with changing and persisting disciplinary and sub-disciplinary practices of producing information and knowledge, of knowing, and informing. A collective, multivocal autoethnographic method is used to obtain vignettes from five areas of activity in or related to archaeology. The ongoing digitization of archaeological investigation and documentation methods, and of archaeological materials, is used as a shared departure point in the vignettes, explaining how digitization influences documents in each area of archaeology. The vignettes illustrate a multitude of conceptions and materialities of documentation and reveal frictions, both within and between sub-disciplinary areas. In light of the exploration of documentation practices in archaeology, we posit that a neo-documentalist perspective functions as a useful analytical tool for deconstructing habitual and canonical conceptions of documentation in disciplines and practices. The approach is especially powerful for pinpointing and explicating frictions between conceptions of documentation that can cause problems in information sharing and communication. We discuss the potential of the neo-documentalist approach as a practical tool to plan for and implement change in documentation and document practices.

Recommended Citation

Börjesson, Lisa; Dell'Unto, Nicolo; Huvila, Isto; Larsson, Carolina; Löwenborg, Daniel; Petersson, Bodil; and Stenborg, Per (2016) "A Neo-Documentalist Lens for Exploring the Premises of Disciplinary Knowledge Making," Proceedings from the Document Academy: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1 , Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35492/docam/3/1/5
Available at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/docam/vol3/iss1/5

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.35492/docam/3/1/5