Memory functions and functions of memory

By Isto Huvila, 31 August, 2012

 I gave a talk on a systemic perspective to memory institutions and participated in the beginning of the week in the summer school of the MEMORNET doctoral programme in Tampere, Finland. Maryanne Dever from the University of Newcastle (Australia) gave a highly enticing keynote on the pleasures of paper, according to her own words, citing Karl Lagerfeld for the first time in an academic talk. The student papers gave an excellent overview of some possible things the notion of memory institutions and memory functions can be. Memory is obviously a central theme in cultural heritage studies and in the context of archives, libraries and museums, but it pertains also the realm of digital culture and corporate entities. Because of its diversity, it is also very important to ask what memory is all about in these different contexts. Even if it is easy to assume that memory functions or the function of 'memory' is somehow similar in various cultural heritage contexts, it is definitely not. In this sense it would be highly important to try to make excursions outside the context of 'memory' in 'cultural heritage' in order to understand the variety of 'memories' it really engages.

Latest Publications

The NORDeHEALTH 2022 Patient Survey: A Cross-Sectional Survey of National Patient Portal Users in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia (Preprint)
Hägglund, M., Kharko, A., Hagström, J., Bärkås, A., Blease, C., Cajander, Å., et al. (2023). The NORDeHEALTH 2022 Patient Survey: A Cross-Sectional Survey of National Patient Portal Users in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia (Preprint). Journal Of Medical Internet Research, 25, e47573. http://doi.org/10.2196/47573 (Original work published mar)
On Archives and User Participation in the Nordic Countries
Huvila, I. (2023). On Archives and User Participation in the Nordic Countries. In G. Bak & Rostgaard, M. (Eds.) (pp. 225-236). London: Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003325406-18
The Social Production of Discourse in Archaeology
Huvila, I. (2023). The Social Production of Discourse in Archaeology. In C. Gonzalez-Perez, Martin-Rodilla, P., & Pereira-Fariña, M. (Eds.) (pp. 115-136). Cham: Springer International Publishing. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37156-1_6
Errors, Omissions, and Offenses in the Health Record of Mental Health Care Patients: Results from a Nationwide Survey in Sweden
Bärkås, A., Kharko, A., Blease, C., Cajander, Å., Fagerlund, A., Huvila, I., et al. (2023). Errors, Omissions, and Offenses in the Health Record of Mental Health Care Patients: Results from a Nationwide Survey in Sweden. Journal Of Medical Internet Research, 25, e47841. http://doi.org/10.2196/47841 (Original work published nov)
Managing Information Gaps and Non-Information
Huvila, I., Andersson, L., Fulton, C., Haider, J., & Harviainen, T. (2023). Managing Information Gaps and Non-Information. Proceedings Of The Association For Information Science And Technology, 60, 793-798. http://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.863

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Isto Huvila

(né Isto Vatanen)  
Professor in  
Information Studies  
Department of ALM  
Uppsala University

Docent (adjunct professor) in information management  
Information studies  
Åbo Akademi University

Isto Huvila is working on management and organisation of what we know and how we know in contexts ranging from social media to more traditional arenas of learning and working. My special areas of expertise are organisational information, social media, health, archives, libraries, museums and cultural heritage.

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