Computational Historical Models: Developing European Peripheral Societies
The Topic: The present research seeks to theorise computational models within the context of historical research/analysis, on the one hand, and refine our understanding of peripheral societies. In historiographical terms, the focus is turned upon the circumstances of this development, as for example in industrialisation far from the major European centres and its impact on regional societies and networks. From the perspective of digital research, it deals with modelling of unstructured historical data by exploring the implications of digital approaches for historical research in terms of possibilities scholars have in working with original documents and archives, modes of creation and processing of historical corpora.
The Sources: The research is based upon (yet not restricted to) materials from the General State Archives of Greece – Archives of Cephalonia and Ithaca. The working material is grouped as the core material and the supplementary material: The core material, under the name: ‘Prefecture of Cephalonia and Ithaca: Department of Industry’, consists of 27 folders (further divided in sub-folders) and it is a complete record of all industries that have been established on Cephalonia and Ithaca from 1906-2006. The material presents a relative homogeneity and is in a good preservation state. It includes letters, applications, mechanical and topographical studies, licences and other relevant information and bureaucratic material. However, some industries’ history is better documented, which is the result of either a better administrative organisation or record-keeping.
The supplementary material, now, is constituted by either further collections of the Archives or other materials. The archival further collections are: local and national newspapers (which can draw some lines for the reception of industrialisation and shed some light in the critical response to the islands’ industrialisation in a comparison with the mainland Greek and general European industrialisation), legal collections as records for births, deaths, marriages, and testaments (which can present the surrounding social context for the under examination societies), hospital and judiciary records (which can augment the understanding through accident reports, judiciary conflicts etc.), architectural and mechanical records (which will enhance the understanding of the islands’ landscape in terms of social structure, interaction, and environment, being of the utmost importance for the study of industrialisation), and finally state agencies’ records (which identify the industrial and post-industrial development of individuals in times of unemployment and other financial states). The exo-archival data are spatiotemporal analyses of the islands’ landscape, interviews with locals, and other material they can provide to add to the archival-recorded history of the island (photos, records that have not been delivered to the archives etc.).
The Methodology: The topic is characterised by particularities in terms of the theoretical framework and its practical application. The original question is a quite complex one and the materials are quite versatile in their entirety (in terms or genre, nature etc.) and these require a framework that transcends ‘traditional’ historical methodology and incorporates methods and practices from other scientific fields, at least if the desired results are to record and capture this complicated network. This is apparent from the essential structure of the materials to their processing and dissemination and further explained in understanding and documenting ‘this social history’ in a way that respects its manifold dimensions and protagonists and manages to rise above a ‘typical’ narrative that describes all information (such as pictures, numbers, spatiotemporal data, oral narratives) in words depriving the biggest part of knowledge from the audience, whether it be within the academia or the public.
