Tales from the archive: methodological and ethical issues in historical geography research

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of methodological and ethical issues in historical geography research. Drawing on the experience of researching the historical geographies of abortion in late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Lancashire, the paper discusses some of the ethical and methodological questions that historical research on sensitive topics raises. This paper investigates the politics of the archive and the forms of censorship researchers may encounter. It also explores the possibility of a conflict of interest between researcher and participant, including the dilemmas researchers face when research participants are dead, but remain important figures in the community. Moreover, the paper argues that the recent burgeoning interest in family and local history makes questions of method and ethics far more urgent for the geographer. In conclusion, the paper calls for more dialogue within geography about researching sensitive subjects, and also between geography and other disciplines.

Teaching historical geography in the field

“…Notwithstanding the importance of landscape study as a method in historical geography, the sub-discipline is one whose intellectual work often depends on a sustained engagement with primary sources: a fact which presents particular pedagogical challenges in the lecture room as well as in the field. While a number of geographers have reflected in detail on their own experience of archival research, its potential use in teaching (and specifically in the context of fieldwork) has yet fully to be examined (Bailey, Brace, & Harvey, 2008;Baker, 1997;Maddrell, 2007;Moore, 2010). This paper emerges from a 2-day workshop, "Teaching Historical Geographies: Practice and Pedagogy", hosted in May 2011 by the Historical Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG.…”

Young ghosts: ethical and methodological issues of historical research in children's geographies

“…In terms of privacy, Moore (2010) I also want to reflect on issues of representation and consent. As geographers involved in 'mainstream' research with young people often experience, I felt a great sense of responsibility to these individuals (although they 'lived' in catalogues and boxes) and was often frustrated with the challenge of doing them justice.…”

“…The endeavour of historical research, however, is often constricted by the politics of the archive and the nature and construction of certain types of knowledge (Burton 2005;Moore 2010). Elizabeth Gagen's (2001) The main body of this paper's discussion is now presented in two sections.…”

“…Whilst historical geographers have begun to consider some of the ethics of archival research in the context of sensitive topics (Cameron 2001;Moore 2010) as part of a wider literature on historical research methods (Gagen et al 2007;Lorimer 2009), this paper focuses on children and young people encountered in the archive. Drawing upon a series of scenarios and struggles from my doctoral research which examined the Scout Movement in Britain (1908 -present), I consider how the historical geographies of young people bring a specific set of ethical responsibilities that need to be considered.…”

Empirical and analytical subaltern space? Ashrams, brothels and trafficking in colonial Delhi

“…What is rarer in geography is work that attempts to recover voices of otherness and difference from within the archive (although see Bressey 2011, Duncan 1999, Driver, et al 2009, Moore 2010). The archive is increasingly understood in the discipline as a space of documentary investigation but also as a space of embodied encounter and a discursive phenomenon that intertextually dreams of including us all (Lorimer 2009, Mills 2013.…”