Claiming Less, Delivering More: A Critique of Positivist Formulations on Archives in South Africa

  • Verne Harris

Author Biography

Verne Harris
Verne Harris was with South Africa's State Archives Service for thirteen years, and is currently a deputy director in the newly established National Archives (January 1997). He holds an M.A. in history from the University of Natal and the National Diploma in Archival Science from the Pietermarizburg Technical College. His thesis, "Land, Labour and Ideology: Government Land Policy and the Relations Between Africans and Whites on the Land in Northern Natal 1910-1936," was published in the Archives Year Book for South African History in 1991. A member of the South African Society of Archivists' National Committee since 1988, he has edited the last ten issues of the South African Archives Journal and several other publications, including A Bilingual South African List of Archival Terms and Professional Code for South African Archivists (both with Clive Kirkwood). From 1992 to 1993, he served on the African National Congress Archives Sub-committee, and chaired the Working Committee of the Consultative Forum which drafted the South Africa Bill in 1995. In 1996, he chaired the Drafting Committee of the KwaZulu-Natal Task Group which produced the Provincial Archives of KwaZulu-Natal Bill. His latest monograph, Exploring Archives: An Introduction to Archival Ideas and Practice in South Africa, was published by the National Archives of South African in 1997.
Published
1997-02-13
How to Cite
Harris, Verne. 1997. “Claiming Less, Delivering More: A Critique of Positivist Formulations on Archives in South Africa”. Archivaria 44 (February), 132-41. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12200.
Section
Counterpoint