Digital History and Immaterial Infrastructure: A Bottom-Up Approach

Abstract

This paper argues for an expanded view of research infrastructure. Drawing on our experiences leading the research platform DigitalHistory@Lund, it shows how research capacity can be unlocked “bottom-up”, by providing scholars with comparatively cheap—yet often inaccessible— technological support. By engaging researchers in digitally enabled scholarly practices, the platform yielded a multiplying effect that has seen participants produce highly competitive grant applications and eventually bring home external funding currently worth eight times the platform’s original costs. The platform thus demonstrates the importance of “immaterial” infrastructure in the sense of basic organisational structures that facilitate collaboration and communication.