Macro‐appraisal and functional analysis: documenting governance rather than government1

Macro‐appraisal encompasses a new theory, strategy and methodology for doing appraisal, which was first adopted at the National Archives of Canada in the 1990s. After a summary of the broader concept of macro‐appraisal, this article explores the ‘functional analysis’ that is the theoretical and methodological core of macro‐appraisal. The argument suggests that archivists in appraisal should focus on issues of governance, thus going beyond trying to understand (and document) what a government (or other institution) does. It seeks thereby to put the ‘citizen’ back in the citizen–state relationship—and among the archival records identified through macro‐appraisal for long‐term archival preservation.