Practices of Parliament
Together with my colleague Fredrik Norén, I have become active in an international network with academics interested in parliamentary data in various countries. There is naturally a linkage to our reserch project Westac. During 2020 a number of “The Text Mining Parliamentary Data Seminars” were held, and on Thursday March 18th 2021, another seminar will be organised with the title: “Practices of Parliament”. Documenting parliamentary debates can be tricky. On the one hand, a record of discussions needs to be true and authentic, and on the other hand such a record is always an interpretation – to be apprehended for future generations. As a number of historical investigations have noticed, practices of marking up parliamentary debates diers, for example between countries. Today, within digital history projects there hence exists an increased awareness of accurate curation of parliamentary data. Issues are often mundane: are there clear starting and ending points dividing up previous documentation? How to classify events in the chamber – besides actual speeches? The workshop brings together a group of scholars and practitioners with different experiences of documenting parliamentary debates in four European countries: Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland and Finland. The workshop includes five short presentations as well as a panel discussion.
The workshop is open to all – more information can be found on this flyer: