Practice theory: a new approach for archival and recordkeeping research
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-10-2016-0038 |
| Pages | 104-124 |
| Published date | 17 July 2017 |
| Date | 17 July 2017 |
| Author | Asen Ognyanov Ivanov |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Practice theory: a new
approach for archival and
recordkeeping research
Asen Ognyanov Ivanov
Faculty of Information (iSchool), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to introduce a qualitative research approach based on current
developments in the eld of practice theory. The novelty of this approach is that it positions organizational
practices as a central unit of analysis of archival and recordkeeping work. The goal of the paper is to highlight
the continuity between practice theory and archival and recordkeeping scholarship and to then propose how
practice theory could be used in archival and recordkeeping research.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper traces the continuity between practice theory and two
inuential bodies of literature in archival and recordkeeping scholarship developed in the last two decades. It
then outlines a practice theory research agenda for archival and recordkeeping research by drawing on the
disciplines of cultural sociology, science and technology studies, ethnomethodology and organizational
studies. The potential research application of practice theory is illustrated with examples from an on-going
doctoral project on appraisal and preservation practices in a digital broadcasting archive.
Findings –The analysis of current literature shows an agreement that archival and recordkeeping practices
exhibit a complexity that makes them important foci for further research. By placing these insights into
contact with practice theory, the paper champions a new research agenda for archival and recordkeeping
research.
Originality/value –The paper positions and outlines the tenets of practice theory, making them
methodologically available to archival and recordkeeping scholars and practitioners. It also indicates how
practice theory offers a new perspective for conceptualizing the causal effects of organizational culture on
organizational practices.
Keywords Methodology, Qualitative methods, Practice theory, Preservation, Multimedia,
Archiving, Appraisal
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
This paper introduces a largely unexplored approach in archival and recordkeeping research
based on the theoretical and methodological premises of the eld of practice theory[1].
Despite what the name suggests, practice theory is not a unied theoretical framework[2].
Rather, practice theory is an interdisciplinary research approach based on a set of ontological
and epistemological arguments about the nature of social reality. The dening feature of this
approach is that it positions social and organizational practices as its central unit of
theoretical and empirical analysis.
Practice theory sets out a new agenda for sociological inquiry in archival and
recordkeeping research informed by ideas developed in the disciplines of cultural sociology,
science and technology studies, ethnomethodology and organizational studies. It does so by
placing an emphasis on the fact that archival and recordkeeping work is fundamentally
constituted by situated (i.e. context-specic) social and organizational practices, and
therefore, could be productively studied on these terms. Practice theory contributes to prior
philosophical and sociological studies of archival and recordkeeping practices by offering a
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
RMJ
27,2
104
Received 1 October 2016
Revised 31 January 2017
23 March 2017
Accepted 13 April 2017
RecordsManagement Journal
Vol.27 No. 2, 2017
pp.104-124
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/RMJ-10-2016-0038
new perspective for describing and analyzing the social, cultural, and technological
dimensions of practice and by offering a new theoretical conceptualization of the causal
effects of organizational culture on organizational practices. Adopting practice theory in
archival and recordkeeping research responds to recent calls for softer research approaches
that can account for “the actual practices of making and keeping digital objects, implicitly
relying on capable and knowledgeable mediators [i.e. archivist, records managers, or digital
curators]” (Foscarini, 2010, p. 390). It also provides a suitable research framework for
advancing the pragmatic theorization of emerging practices of managing information and
records in digital environments (Dallas, 2016).
To introduce the practice-theory research agenda outlined above, this paper rst situates
practice theory in the context of what it calls the interpretive paradigm in archival and
recordkeeping research. It then discusses the theoretical foundations of practice theory.
Lastly, it demonstrates its methodological application by using examples from an on-going
doctoral project on the appraisal and preservation practices at the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC).
Situating practice theory in archival and recordkeeping research
Practice has always been a central concept in archival and recordkeeping research. It is
generally accepted that the focus of archival and recordkeeping research is to “build theories
and models that provide frameworks for practice, as well as explain and describe the
contexts within which practice operates” (Gilliland and McKemmish, 2006, p. 149). To be
sure, there is an extensive theoretical and methodological literature, how-to manuals and
hundreds of standards to guide and support the work of archivists and records managers.
But interpretive research on archival and recordkeeping practice has emerged only recently.
A characteristic feature of this research is that it typically begins by closely examining the
phenomena under investigation without committing to a priori explanations. Rather,
theories and concepts serve as sensitizing frames to guide a exible and adaptable inquiry,
or in some cases, are not used at all[3]. The goal of the research is to describe and analyze the
phenomena under investigation, primarily through qualitative methods (e.g. participant
observation, in-depth interviews) and to then rene old, or advance new, theoretical
explanations. As a result, interpretive research is typically focused on small empirical sites of
observation (case studies) and does not provide the form and volume of data necessary for a
statistical generalization. What makes it particularly valuable across the social sciences,
however, is the ability to examine the sociocultural and symbolic dimension of social
phenomenon, reveal the meanings social actors attach to their actions and environments and
uncover concealed regularities, causal processes and mechanisms (Denzin, 1970;Guba, 1990;
Reed, 2011;Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 2012). The emergence of an interpretive research
paradigm is among the most inuential developments in archival and recordkeeping
scholarship in the last two decades. This development provides both philosophical and
sociological perspectives on the role of archival and recordkeeping practices to which
practice theory can contribute[4].
The interpretive paradigm in archival and recordkeeping research
During the 1980s, the changes of administrative and juridical structures and the proliferation
of electronic records across all branches of social institutions brought an increased attention
to the porous lines dividing archival and records management practices, questioning the
validly of such distinction (Ham, 1981;Atherton, 1985)[5]. This gave rise to a new
conceptualization of the scope and goals of these practices, one advocating for the proactive
management of organizational records prior to their inclusion in archives and founded on a
105
Practice theory
To continue reading
Request your trial