"A frontal attack on professionalism, standards and scholarship"?. Democratising archives and the production of knowledge

Viewed by some as an 'attack on professionalism and scholarship', others see recent developments within the archive sector including wider recognition of the significance of independent community archives, and a growing awareness of the potential of incorporating the knowledge and expertise of users into archival practice as representing important opportunities for extending the democratic range of archival heritage and the histories that are written from them. My paper will first examine what lies behind demands for a democratised heritage and then briefly report on on-going research into the motivations behind radical independent community archives and the potential of collaborative technologies for enhancing archival practice and use by incorporating a much wider range of voices into the management of the archive.