Coordinating archival activation: a project-based model for institutional contexts

Abstract

This thesis examines how an archival activation project was organised within an institutional context through the case study After Storms: A Meeting in the Archive, developed at the International Institute of Social History (IISH). The project is analysed using institutional theory, particularly the concepts of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures, to examine how institutional conditions shaped access, decision-making, project framing, collaboration, and working processes in practice. Based on this analysis, the thesis identifies three dimensions for organising archival activation – managing institutional structures, positioning the project, and designing the working process – and develops a project-based model that relates these dimensions to project phases and the actors involved in the work.