4.2
Fig 2.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK & RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Conceptual framework collage (Source: Authots/Sheffield City Council Archive)
Counter Archiving Sheffied The memories, connections, and contributions of the African-Caribbean diasporic community in Sheffield have not been included in traditional forms of archives or even documented by the community members themselves prior to the BAP. One way to work against this erasure and exclusion is to challenge, contest, and expand such conventional archives through alternative forms of knowledge, such as counter-archives and counter-narratives (Brusius, 2019; Ketelaar, 2009).
Understanding the connections between diasporic geographies and living heritage led to the initial guiding research questions that informed our approach and methodology to the Practice Engagement:
• How can identity and sense of belonging be fostered within diasporic geographies in Sheffield? • How can individual and collective identity be reconciled within diasporic geographies in Sheffield?
Counter-archives question what information is valued, what knowledge is preserved or discarded, which voices craft narratives, and how history can be inclusively written (Trouillot, 2015). They also play a greater role than only documenting the past as a form of physical storage or as part of academic research; they enable community members to explore and conceptualise their (hi)stories and memories in the co-creation of an archive and can be integrated into the spaces the communities represent (Barraza, Garcia and Zipperer, 2018; Ketelaar, 2009). As such, counter-archives can take a multiplicity of forms, and their documentation goes beyond a single scale,
• Within diasporic groups in Sheffield, how has memory been transferred and transformed through time, place, and interpretation?
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