ABSTRACT
Susan Pell explores the impact archives have in social justice struggles over urban redevelopments, looking at uses of activist archives in an anti-gentrification campaign. Because urban redevelopment takes place over a long period of time (sometimes decades) and because it is an increasingly bureaucratic and mediated process, archives can aid activists in contesting gentrification. Drawing from a case study of the 56a Infoshop Archive and the redevelopment of the Heygate Council Estate in London, United Kingdom, Pell illuminates two ways in which archives have been incorporated into anti-gentrification activism. Firstly, archiving is used as a means to track the redevelopment process, enabling scrutiny of local authorities and developers. Secondly, archival records are used to construct and disseminate alternative narratives in public spheres that counter official discourses of regeneration. She concludes that the social justice impact of archives for activists is the ability to mobilise alternative and counter-knowledges, strengthen collective voices in official spaces of politics, and preserve and publicise histories of resistance against inequalities in the city.
