Storia digitale o storia con il digitale?

Abstract

The Digital Turn in history has reshaped our documentation, transformed the tools used to store, treat and access it, and, sometimes, fostered new epistemological questions. But, at the moment, there’s no systematic methodology developed to approach critically these digital tools which are deeply affecting the relationship between historians, their sources and the writing of history. The disruptive digital turn questions our history profession globally and touches upon the uncertainties about the future of traditional historiography. Digital history narratives require to rewrite and reinterpret professional methods and codes and to master new practices with the past in the digital age. The digital has deeply conditioned the presence of the past in our societies and favoured new public perceptions of the pastness of history. The digital realm allowed the creation of new interconnections between past and present. So we can ask ourselves whether, in light of a public dissemination of new interactive digital technologies, we should need to review in depth the relationship developed today with the past, our memory and our history. Methodological changes in the craft of historians are of such an entity that we should dedicate time to it, analysing what digital history or history with digital means represent today and what these two concepts mean for the 21st century history profession.