UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Archives of Transformation: A Case Study of the International Women’s Network Against Militarism’s Archival System A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies By Ellen-Rae Cabebe Cachola 2014 ii Copyright by Ellen-Rae Cabebe Cachola 2014 i ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Archives of Transformation: A Case Study of the International Women’s Network Against Militarism’s Archival System By Ellen-Rae Cabebe Cachola Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, Committee Chair Abstract This dissertation describes the International Women’s Network Against Militarism’s (IWNAM) political epistemology of security from an archival perspective, and how they create community archives to evidence this epistemology. This research examines records created by Women for Genuine Security (WGS) and Women’s Voices Women Speak (WVWS), U.S. and Hawaiʻi based partners of the IWNAM. These records document the emergence of the IWNAM between 1997 and 2012, as women from the countries of South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Guam, Marshall Islands, Hawaiʻi, U.S., Puerto Rico, and Vieques shared information about the negative effects of militarism and strategies of resistance. By describing the archival systems of WGS and WVWS, insights on the IWNAM's knowledge production and archive creation processes are revealed. The archive is conceptualized as the expression of a record creator’s “will,” an immaterial force that materializes through the dynamic creation of records and recordkeeping systems that coordinate resources and ii labor to build organizations, institutions and infrastructures. The IWNAM archive is embedded in the Imperial Archive, an imperialist will that creates and legitimizes bi- lateral security agreements, such as the Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) between the U.S. and South Korea and the U.S. and Japan; and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the U.S. and the Philippines. The functions of these agreements are to adapt Westphalian philosophies of security, i.e. Eurocentric militaristic development and international relations, into new territories and contexts. Autoethnography, action research, and archival analysis were used to examine how the IWNAM's record creation and recordkeeping processes are driven by social practices and research to redefine security. The IWNAM archive is conceptualized as a complex adaptive system that facilitates public self-reflection on community embeddedness within militarized orders and creative agency to transform their conditions. iii This dissertation of Ellen-Rae Cabebe Cachola is approved. Jean-François Blanchette Keith L. Camacho Johanna Drucker Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv To my family v Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES .................................................................................................. x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... xi VITA .......................................................................................................................................... xiii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 15 I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 15 POLITICS OF ARCHIVES ....................................................................................................................... 25 CUSTODIAL ARCHIVES ......................................................................................................................... 27 POST-CUSTODIAL ARCHIVES ........................................................................................................... 32 II. ARCHIVES & WESTPHALIAN SOVEREIGNTY ..................................................................... 37 CREATE: A HISTORY OF U.S. SOVEREIGNTY .......................................................................... 37 CAPTURE: IMPERIAL RECORDS & MATERIALITY ............................................................... 41 ORGANIZATION: INTEGRATION INTO ARCHIVAL LANDSCAPES ............................. 47 PLURALIZATION: INTERPLAY OF IMPERIAL & SUBALTERN ARCHIVES ............. 54 III. INSULAR CASES ......................................................................................................................... 61 IV. THE STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENTS (SOFAs) ........................................................... 66 JAPAN ............................................................................................................................................................... 69 KOREA ............................................................................................................................................................. 71 PHILIPPINES ................................................................................................................................................. 71 V. ARCHIVES OF TRANSFORMATION ........................................................................................ 74 POST-CUSTODIAL ARCHIVAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................................... 75 THE POLITICAL MISSION OF COMMUNITY ARCHIVES .................................................... 77 vi COMMUNITY BASED ARCHIVAL JURISDICTION ................................................................. 79 VI. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 92 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH DESIGN ....................................................................................... 95 I. WHAT IS THE IWNAM? .............................................................................................................. 97 FUNCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 97 IDENTITY ..................................................................................................................................................... 103 II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 111 ARCHIVAL METHODOLOGIES ........................................................................................................ 112 AUTOETHNOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................... 118 ACTION RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................... 126 INTERVIEWS .............................................................................................................................................. 131 III. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 134 CHAPTER 3: GENUINESECURITY.ORG, A TRACE OF TRANSFORMATIVE ARCHIVAL ACTIVITY .......................................................................................................... 135 I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 135 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................. 136 III. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 142 DATA COLLECTION ............................................................................................................................... 142 IV. THE HERSTORY OF GENUINESECURITY.ORG ............................................................... 145 V. ANALYSIS OF MEETING CULTURES .................................................................................... 148 PLACE AS ARCHIVES ........................................................................................................................... 155 PEOPLE AS ARCHIVES ......................................................................................................................... 170 VI. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 176 vii CHAPTER 4: WVWS808.BLOGSPOT.COM: INDIGENOUS AND IMMIGRANT WOMEN’S DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPERIAL ARCHIVE IN HAWAIʻI .................... 177 I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 177 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................. 178 III. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 182 CREATE ......................................................................................................................................................... 185 CAPTURE .....................................................................................................................................................