Co-producing archival research with communication, reflexivity and friendship: crossing the three-wire bridge

This paper describes the development of a methodology enabling three communities to co-produce research investigating a community’s use of records for maintaining collective memory and to develop a purpose-designed, community-controlled archival system. The three communities, a hiking club and the archival research and practice communities, are involved throughout the research, collaboratively developing aims, research design, data collection and analysis, and will benefit from outcomes specific to each. This level of co-production requires excellent understanding of one another’s needs, skills, knowledge and values, so the methodology is based in openness to alternative viewpoints, supported by a commitment to open communication, reflexivity and an ethics of friendship to try to ensure the needs, knowledge and values of all participants are acknowledged and met. Blogging keeps track of the complex processes involved in the research. The research process is developing intercommunity relationships and new skills, supporting the sustainability of the resulting archival system. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.