Goncalves, Sandra Sofia FigueiredoRibeiro, Maria Inês de Sousa2023-09-052023-09-052023-05-26http://hdl.handle.net/10451/59143This research addresses institutional archives, the spaces they occupy, the acquisition processes and policies they involve, and the narratives they produce. Archives have the power to preserve narratives and memories, influencing our knowledge about history, while excluding records, in a selection process connoted of political power. Communities socially on the margins are often disregarded in archival acquisition policies, with priority ultimately given to storing narratives concerning dominant groups in society. As a result, history is viewed from biased points of view, social and cultural memories are lost, representative spaces are denied, and access to and construction of identities is constrained, while structural systems of marginalization and/or oppression that are already so deeply rooted in our society are preserved. Throughout the research, there is an attempt to find other alternative models to the institutional archive, which can serve the narratives that usually have no space in it. One can find in the counter-archive the potential not only to contest the conventional archive and consequently, what is or is not public knowledge, but also to recover and activate neglected records, in an alternative space that is usually built on an open and collaborative basis. Critical design practices are also investigated, and it is in reviewing the critical design approach in the light of other non-hegemonic design practices and intersectionality theories that the posture to be adopted during the practical component is found. The counter-archival project A Mouraria explores in practice the theoretical premises pointed out, seeking to activate narratives related to a territory about which stigma still persists, Mouraria. Using the experiences of the community, accessed through the partnership formed with Associação Renovar a Mouraria, the project seeks to tell the story of the neighborhood, filling knowledge gaps about itporDesign de comunicaçãoArquivosArquivos digitaisSilêncioInterseccionalidadeSociologia do designProjeto Contra-Arquivo A Mourariamaster thesis203330285