archival hospitality

Most qualitative data repositories or data archives are infrastructured for data accessibility (or availability), as in the FAIR principles (data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). PECE works to do more than make data accessible, infrastructuring toward an ethic of archival hospitality.

Accessibility as an ethic -- "it's good to make your data accessible" -- is predicated on narrowness, specificity, efficiency, and well-defined needs; it is fundamentally utilitarian. A researcher searches for data she knows she needs, finds it through its metadata, accesses it in the repository or archive that contains it, acquires it, exits. These data are usually presented in lists of discrete items, isolated from other data, and self-sufficient.

PECE conceptualizes data differently: data are thoroughly relational, bound to the questions and contexts that created them through interpretation and selection, always open to change from new questions and contexts. In the PECE model, archives should be hospitable: welcoming, encouraging a researcher to linger and explore, continue in conversation, and further expand it. PECE makes the relations among data visible to encourage roaming, exploration, surprise, and play. Hospitable archives say: "Please, eat -- and have a seat, stay for a while; there's more here than is on the table or menu."