2025/12/31 by Akansel Yalçınkaya
Arts and Humanities · #Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis #Digital and Traditional Archives Management #Diverse Musicological Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00076791.2025.2583124
This article examines the challenges posed by the lack or closure of corporate archives in Turkey from the perspective of a business historian. It explores both the underlying causes of this archival inaccessibility – rooted in what I term ‘archival apathy’, characterised by absence, rupture, silence, and secrecy – and its implications for historical research. In response to these constraints, business historians in Turkey often resort to indirect strategies: they may gain access to archival materials by uncritically producing coffee‐table books, or they may rely predominantly on secondary sources due to the limited availability of primary documentation. As a methodological intervention, I argue for the use of alternative sources – such as scientific corporate histories, grey literature, and private (auto)biographies – as viable substitutes for formal archival records. The article concludes with a discussion on the potential of archival crowdsourcing as a collaborative solution for business historians working in archive-scarce environments, particularly in developing countries.