Archives as instruments of power

Abstract

Considering archives as instruments of power, whatever that may be, with or without a question mark, is probably one of the most classic of all the facets of archives. Archives are associated with power and especially State power, even while power can take many forms, whether religious, economic, social, gender-based, etc., whether it is the power of one, the power of many, the power of all, whether it is sovereign, delegated or relative. We don’t have to consider power in a univocal mode, where it is necessarily confused with domination, force and constraint. Power administers, informs, protects and serves, just as much as it represses, controls, threatens or enslaves. It is power, its nature and objectives, that influence the value of archives as an instrument, and not the other way round, although the liberating and illuminating function of the written word remains secondary and ambiguous. It is possible to adopt a number of positions when considering the relationship between power and archives, whether this relationship is fundamental, instrumental or antagonistic. It could be summed up in a few simple formulas: power through archives, power over archives, power of archives. In short, the relationship between archives and power has three dimensions: functional, symbolic and critical. The social responsibility that the archivist has recently discovered and taken upon himself does not preclude the instrumental dimension of archives, nor does it eliminate their functional, symbolic or critical dimensions, but it does allow us to see more clearly what archives do for power or — to put it another way — what their power is.