👥Oral Histories

A method to collect oral histories happening in your city

What is it about and why is it relevant ?

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, important events, or everyday life. These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations. Oral Histories serve as interpretive recollections of a site’s history, as the narrator compresses years of living into a few hours of talk, selecting - consciously and unconsciously - what to say and how to say it.

Oral History is a suitable and commonly-used method for effective community projects, and numerous toolkits can be found online (e.g here and here). The Oral History Association offers useful and comprehensive additional guidelines, as well as the Oral History Review.

Oral Histories as a method within CENTRINNO describes the wider approach to gathering the relevant information from stakeholders about their relationship to (the history of) a site. Utilising the approach to Oral History developed by the AHK enables pilot teams and other users of this approach to generate a stronger relationship with stakeholders via an improved communication, and also emphasises aspects of the identity of the site that are less well-known, less easy to document, or have been forgotten about. In much the same way as with Emotion Networking, this focus on the untold or neglected stories of pilot sites can encourage an addressing of the social inclusion focus within the CENTRINNO project.

Speaking to stakeholders personally is important as the act of talking is conducive to the unearthing of details that are part of a pilot site’s heritage, that may not be as easily identifiable in the form of documentation or architecture, to state two possible examples.

Main Achievements 👍

(further information may be reported in this section for the final version of this Toolkit in February 2024)

Key Steps

Find here a list of fundamental steps you should follow if you want to collect oral histories from your FCH neighbourhood or your city at large :

How and when

When investigating Oral Histories through conducting interviews, it is necessary to:

• Speak respectfully

• Ensure safety

• Act with curiosity

• Establish a relationship

• Establish (or move towards an establishment of) genuine trust

• Consider ethics

• Have a goal in mind but be flexible

Oral Histories are not just the act of interviewing a stakeholder, but is comprised of four main action areas:

OH are not just the act of interviewing a stakeholder

Oral Histories are not just the act of interviewing a stakeholder, but is comprised of four main action areas:

1. Preparation

• Main research question

• Questions

• Location

• Ethics

• Permission/Consent form

• Recording

• Objects

• Equipment

• Language

• Should you bring something?

• Can you accept a gift?

2. Interview

• What is the location?

• What emotions are relevant or should be considered?

• Can photos be part of the interview, on both sides?

• Prepare questions

• Be flexible with answers

• Consider your body language

• Act truthfully

3. Afterwards

• Transcribe

• Anonymize/Generalise

• Validation/Verification of claims

• Storage of data/recordings

4. Presentation

• Analysis

• Categorisation

• How does this fit with CENTRINNO’s wider goals and research questions

Summary Table

Characteristics
Difficulty	Medium
Duration	Preparation: 1 day - Session itself: 1-2 hours
Facilitator I Participants	F= 1 (interviewer ) / P= up to 2
Setting	Online and Offline
Contact	[e-mail] - an additional expert is Judy Jaffe- Schagen, from whom much of the above guidance came.
Tagging System	#CuratePastTowardFuture, #Heritage