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Kommunarkivet i en kulturarvskontext : Institutionella perspektiv på kommunarkivens organisation och utåtriktade verksamhet

Hult, Kristina LU (2023) ABMM34 20221
Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
Abstract
This thesis aims to unveil existing differences when it comes to the placement of
the City Archive within the structural frames of the Swedish municipal governance.
Neo- institutionalism and Scandinavian institutionalism have been applied, with the
perspective of Terry Cook’s ideas about archival paradigms in archival science,
with a focus on outreaching activities. Swedish local governance relies on
municipal autonomy. According to jurisdiction, like the Archives act and the Public
Access to Information and Secrecy Act, every municipality must have an appointed
committee responsible for their municipal archives. This means that an archive can
be found on different levels in the hierarchy of the local government. Unless the... (More)
This thesis aims to unveil existing differences when it comes to the placement of
the City Archive within the structural frames of the Swedish municipal governance.
Neo- institutionalism and Scandinavian institutionalism have been applied, with the
perspective of Terry Cook’s ideas about archival paradigms in archival science,
with a focus on outreaching activities. Swedish local governance relies on
municipal autonomy. According to jurisdiction, like the Archives act and the Public
Access to Information and Secrecy Act, every municipality must have an appointed
committee responsible for their municipal archives. This means that an archive can
be found on different levels in the hierarchy of the local government. Unless the
municipal council choose to make an active decision, the municipal executive
committee are predestined to act as the local archival authority. Malmö City
Archive belongs to the Cultural Administration and states an example of an archive
belonging to a differing council. This distinction is the main reason I was interested
in researching this area further. In recent years there have been expectations of
increased public understanding and interest of the archives as a source of
information and knowledge. Therefore, the question arises whether there is a
connection between outreach and the organizational structure of the city archives -
or not. The research was conducted based on three interviews with archivists and a
questionnaire sent to all 290 municipalities. The result indicates that there is no
distinct correlation between organizational structure and outreach. 2/3 of the
respondents stated that they are engaged with outreach activities. Whereas only
3.4% are organized under an irregular archival authority. The purpose of the
performed interviews was to address this question further and look at the archivists’
experiences of how the organizational structure effect the organizational function.
According to the archivists there is a positive effect when it comes to the
outreaching activities offering great possibilities for cooperation with other GLAM
institutions within the same Administration. But when it comes to performing their
tasks as supervising archival authority the archivist would prefer a higher placement
in the hierarchy of the local government. Preferably directly under the municipal
executive committee (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hult, Kristina LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Municipal Archives in the context of cultural heritage : Institutionalized perspective on municipal organizational structures and archival outreach
course
ABMM34 20221
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
municipal archives, city-archives, information science, cultural policy, archival science
language
Swedish
id
9130653
date added to LUP
2023-06-28 09:30:37
date last changed
2023-06-28 09:30:37
@misc{9130653,
  abstract     = {{This thesis aims to unveil existing differences when it comes to the placement of 
the City Archive within the structural frames of the Swedish municipal governance. 
Neo- institutionalism and Scandinavian institutionalism have been applied, with the 
perspective of Terry Cook’s ideas about archival paradigms in archival science, 
with a focus on outreaching activities. Swedish local governance relies on 
municipal autonomy. According to jurisdiction, like the Archives act and the Public 
Access to Information and Secrecy Act, every municipality must have an appointed 
committee responsible for their municipal archives. This means that an archive can 
be found on different levels in the hierarchy of the local government. Unless the 
municipal council choose to make an active decision, the municipal executive 
committee are predestined to act as the local archival authority. Malmö City 
Archive belongs to the Cultural Administration and states an example of an archive 
belonging to a differing council. This distinction is the main reason I was interested 
in researching this area further. In recent years there have been expectations of 
increased public understanding and interest of the archives as a source of 
information and knowledge. Therefore, the question arises whether there is a 
connection between outreach and the organizational structure of the city archives - 
or not. The research was conducted based on three interviews with archivists and a 
questionnaire sent to all 290 municipalities. The result indicates that there is no 
distinct correlation between organizational structure and outreach. 2/3 of the 
respondents stated that they are engaged with outreach activities. Whereas only 
3.4% are organized under an irregular archival authority. The purpose of the 
performed interviews was to address this question further and look at the archivists’ 
experiences of how the organizational structure effect the organizational function. 
According to the archivists there is a positive effect when it comes to the 
outreaching activities offering great possibilities for cooperation with other GLAM 
institutions within the same Administration. But when it comes to performing their 
tasks as supervising archival authority the archivist would prefer a higher placement 
in the hierarchy of the local government. Preferably directly under the municipal 
executive committee}},
  author       = {{Hult, Kristina}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Kommunarkivet i en kulturarvskontext : Institutionella perspektiv på kommunarkivens organisation och utåtriktade verksamhet}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}