The archiving of social movements has long contributed to their cultural impact. Given the wide availability of digital tools for the making and storing of records, ‘autonomous’ archiving is today becoming a significant part of the activist toolkit itself. In parallel, professional archiving has undergone significant change, leading to more participatory and community-based practices that belie the idea of ‘the Archive’ as an institution merely serving the interests of the state.
This collection brings together academics, archivists, and activists to explore some of the many new sites where activist archives are being produced at the present time. With case studies ranging between Turkey, Afghanistan, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and the US, it offers new insights into the opportunities and challenges posed by digitization as well as into the tensions between autonomy and long-term sustainability. It shows above all the potential of archives to become sites of renewed critical engagement.