Reciprocal Archival Imaginaries: The Shifting Boundaries of “Community” in Community Archives

Drawing on data collected from focus groups composed of users of five different community-based archives sites in Southern California, and using Benedict Anderson’s book Imagined Communities as a conceptual foundation, this article examines community archives users’ imaginations, anxieties, and affect regarding other archival users and the shifting boundaries of their community. This article asks, How do members of marginalized groups imagine fluctuating boundaries of their community by specifically conceptualizing other archival users? Community-based archives users, through this research, demonstrate their imaginaries about how their community is defined – not only by community members but also by outside forces. Our data shows a wide range of affective responses to users’ imaginaries; some see themselves as drawing on a community history that they are a part of and solidifying the scope of their community, while others are anxious about new “members” or outsiders who narrow or expand the bounds of a community. This article proposes the term reciprocal archival imaginaries – the circular, continually entangled relationships between archival users, their imaginaries, and community-based archives. Given the unique relationships between community-based archives and users – who also hold other roles as volunteers, donors, and board members and influence archival practice – reciprocal archival imaginaries reflect the ways in which users’ imaginaries and archives inform one another. Not only do community-based archives contribute to the formation of imaginaries, but imaginaries also inform archival processes and decision-making. This research, located alongside other archival scholarship that explores community archives and affect, emphasizes the importance and influence of community imaginations on the archives that form them.