Digitising History From a Global Context; And What This Tells Us About Access and Inequality

In this post we continue our series — ‘Historical Research in the Digital Age’ — which explores historians’ use and understanding of the digital tools and sources that shape modern research culture. The series explores the impact and implications of digital resources (positive and negative) for how historians work today.

In Part Five we hear from Gerben Zaagsma who is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg. Here, Gerben explores the concept of ‘digital abundance’ in global perspective. Allocations of digital resources, and the capacity to access digital content, reflect wider divisions between Global Norths and Souths. However, as Gerben argues, the realities of digital imbalance also cut across these binary divisions. For many, a crucial impediment to research remains the lack of digital discoverability for analogue sources. Gerben also offers ways to better facilitate digital provision in the Global South and connect Northern / Southern research cultures.