Diskurses

Diskurses is a theoretical construct in information science and digital humanities that examines the relationship between storage media and social discourse. It investigates how the design, architecture, and policies of disk-based and cloud storage influence what information is created, preserved, and made accessible over time, shaping collective memory and public conversation.

The term blends the idea of physical disks with discourses, emphasizing that infrastructural choices are not neutral but actively participate in meaning making. Diskurses encourages analysts to distinguish between content and the conditions of its persistence, including file formats, metadata, access controls, and preservation strategies.

Applications of the concept include evaluating archival practices in libraries and museums, informing data governance and policy, and guiding digital humanities research that analyzes large-scale text corpora from diverse repositories. It also supports methodological work on how interface design and searchability affect the visibility of certain discourses.

Critics argue that Diskurses can risk overemphasizing infrastructure at the expense of content, or that it may conflate technical reliability with interpretive value. Proponents counter that the approach highlights important questions about bias, accessibility, and the ethics of preservation. Related topics include digital preservation, metadata standards, and discourse analysis.