Testimonial layer: Citizen voice, appeals, lived context and relational meaning.
Each layer speaks differently, together, they form a record that answers—not just to the institution, but to the public.
Access and Transparency The archive must be accessible, citizens must be able to see what was recorded, how decisions were made and where they were met or refused. Staff must be able to reflect on past judgments, learn from discretionary acts and trace patterns of care. This requires readable formats, searchable systems and open review protocols.
The author notes that many archives are hidden; stored in technical formats, inaccessible to those they affect. This is not a flaw, it is a civic failure. The ethics of the archive demand transparency.
Protection and Integrity The archive must be protected from deletion, distortion and silence. Overrides must not be erased. Testimony must not be sanitised. Reflection must not be penalised. The archive must be held by institutions, but shaped by civic principles and it must resist the pressure to proceduralise care out of existence.
The author proposes a national standard for dialogic archives; ensuring that every public system includes a space for presence,
The author closes this section with a civic truth: the record is not just what happened. It is how we remember, how we answer and how we repair.
Building the System or Archive The author proposes that the system or archive must evolve; from a repository of transactions to a living structure of civic memory. In a landscape shaped by automation, the archive must do more than store data. It must preserve meaning, restore presence and support repair.
From Storage to Witness Most institutional archives are designed for compliance. They retain records to meet legal obligations, not to honour experience. Case files are closed once processed. Appeals are stored without context. Overrides are undocumented or erased. The archive becomes a system of forgetting.
The author resists this. One proposes a civic archive; one that holds not just what was done, but how it was held. This includes dialogic documentation, custodians’ logs, citizen testimony and moments of discretionary care. The archive becomes a witness, not a ledger.
Layered Structure To support this shift, the author outlines a layered structure: Procedural layer: System outputs, timestamps, decisions and scores.
