Archives of Order, Power and Governance

When archives are approached as sites of interrogation rather than depositories of knowledge they provide material with which to unlock preconceived conceptions of power, order and governance. Archives are explored in this project as empirical sites which reflect the power relations involved in deciding what to store, how to do so, where to locate the material and how to make it (in)accessible. These relations, in turn, are the reflection of ways of imagining the world. Ultimately, an archive becomes a space of negotiation between imaginaries (the researcher’s, the archivists’, the originators of documents and the designers of recording systems).

This project seeks to produce ongoing reflections on using archives as empirical sites from which to understand practices of order, power and governance in relation to other research projects (see Insurance and the Politics of Uncertainty, and The Carrera de Indias and Globality in the Early Modern). Analysis is based primarily on experiences at the British National Archives at Kew Gardens, London, and the Archivo General de Indias in Seville.

Publications:
Lobo-Guerrero, L. , & van 't Groenewout, Y. (2016). Archival Methods in International Political Sociology . In X. Guillaume, & P. Bilgin (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology. Routledge.
Lobo-Guerrero, L. , Mark, S. (Ed.), & Can, M. (Ed.) (2012). Archives . In Research Methods in Critical Security Studies: An Introduction. (pp. 121-124). Routledge.

RUG investigator involved: prof.dr. Luis Lobo-Guerrero

Research themes: Modes of Reasoning | Historical Epistemology