Richard Zijdeman

Examples of digital history at the IISH

2015-10-30, IISH, Amsterdam

Moreover, scale notwithstanding, digitisation is about selection and thus far from neutral. Zaagsma (2013, p.20)

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So why do we do it?

… because for quite a range of questions, digitization is key to go move away from biased source selection

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Clio-Infra

•  all countries in the world •  1500-today •  various indicators: economic, health, environmental •  multiple and overlapping sources for some of the indicators •  link: https://www.clio-infra.eu/

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… by combining multiple sources

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… and by moving away from the mean for everything

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macro

micro

macro-micro relations: ‘Coleman boat’

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“Keeping up with the Joneses”

macro-micro relations: ‘Coleman boat’

Improving economic conditions

Strikes

Moan against your friends

So why do we do it?

… because it allows for new ways to incorporate historical contexts

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Global collaboratory for the history of labour relations

•  Patterns and trends in labour relations across the globe •  1500-2000 •  Who works with whom under what conditions? •  Link: https://collab.iisg.nl/web/LabourRelations/

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So why do we do it?

… because there does not need to be bias in digitization

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Historical Sample of the Netherlands

-  random sample of person’s birth records (1812-1922) -  78000 individuals -  certificates of birth, marriage and death -  population registers

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So why do we do it?

… because visualization helps to summarize and provides new insights

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NLGIS •  Data on Dutch municipalities from 1812-1997 •  Plotted on historically accurate borders •  Allows for visualization of own data •  Link: http://www.nlgis.nl

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Vote on PVDA, 1982, Parlemental elections, source: nlgis.nl

So why do we do it?

… because it raises new questions

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Common Lab Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities •  link textual, audio-visual and structured data •  tools to transpose your data into ‘linked data’ •  visualize your data •  link: http://www.clariah.nl

CLARIAH

So why do we do it?

… in support of ‘traditional’ history

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Various examples of supportive ‘digital’ research

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So to sum up, we do digital history because:

•  Deals source selection •  Appreciates historical variation (beyond the mean) •  Allow for studies within historical context •  Provides new questions •  Supports ‘traditional’ history

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Thank you

richard.zijdeman AT iisg.nl

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