avviksarkivet

Avviksarkivet is a Swedish term that describes a collection or archive dedicated to deviations from expected norms, procedures, or outcomes across organizations, sectors, or datasets. It is not tied to a single universal institution; rather, avviksarkivet can refer to different archival practices that document anomalies in a structured way. Typical contents include incident reports, audit findings, quality-control records, statistical outliers, and narrative explanations of unusual results.

The purpose of an avviksarkivet is to enable analysis of patterns in errors, near-misses, or nonconformities, supporting risk management, policy evaluation, and process improvement. By preserving deviations and their contexts, researchers and practitioners can investigate causes, assess interventions, and learn to prevent recurrence.

Management and access to avviksarkivet vary by context. It is often curated by national or regional archives, statistical agencies, government ministries, or research libraries. Access is usually regulated and may require institutional affiliation and approved research purposes. Data may be anonymized or aggregated to protect privacy, and some archives operate as internal governance tools or risk registers rather than public collections.

Historically, the concept aligns with the rise of quality management, safety reporting, and audit culture in the late 20th century. In Swedish contexts, avviksarkivet is used as a descriptive label for collections that enable understanding and mitigation of deviations, rather than as a fixed, universally standardized institution.