Collective memory and management of the past: the entrepreneurs of civil war memory in post‐war <scp>L</scp>ebanon

Assi, Elsa Abou

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2451.2011.01772.x

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Throughout the political transitions of the last 20 years, the marching season has been a challenge to the peace process as a constant reminder that, despite political agreements, people and parties departed from different historical positions and are in transition to different future destinations. In contemporary terms, 'competitive commemoration' (McBride 2001) continues to be a constant fixture, where 'memory entrepreneurs' (Pollak 2000;Abou Assi 2010cf: Haugbolle 2010Byrne et al 2012;Holyfield and Beacham 2011) peddle selective, partisan accounts (both activating and actively forgetting the past) to construct a meaningful connection between past, present and future, to ensure that they will be 'tomorrow's ancestors' (McCrone 1998). In this respect, it is also worth noting that traditional organisations to a certain extent have been eclipsed by different configurations of 'memory entrepreneurs' highlighting the dynamic between political power, compromises and cultural practices.…”

Section: Paradingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Asmal et al 1996). In this context, commemoration and memorialisation often work to enhance and reinforce exclusive group solidarities (Abou Assi 2010;McDowel and Braniff 2014). The study of peace processes thus demands specific understandings of the role of history and memory as conflict dynamics, as well as strategies for studying these as both critical events and as critical continuities.…”

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confidence: 98%

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Parading Memory and Re-member-ing Conflict: Collective Memory in Transition in Northern Ireland

McQuaid

2015

Int J Polit Cult Soc

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In Northern Ireland, parades have long been important carriers of politico-cultural identities and collective memories, as well as arenas of struggle and conflict. Taking as its starting point that these contests over meaning are always framed by their contexts of articulation both in temporal and spatial terms, this article examines the role of parades in the current 'post-conflict' phase of the peace process as it plays out in a particular location, namely North Belfast. Using theories of cultural and collective memory and examples from republican and loyalist parades in North Belfast, it is argued that there is fear of memory and identity collapse in particular communities on the margins of the peace process, leading to a conscious doubling of efforts to (re)articulate the hidden recesses of memory in the current transition. In this, the patterns of 'competitive commemoration' in parades should be understood both horizontally: as majority memory traditions move to minority memory positions, and vertically: in relation to the increasing dissonance between vernacular practices of conflict and the official post-conflict discourses in Northern Ireland. Central to these arguments is the recognition that parading traditions are at once presentist, competitive instruments and also emotional and embodied practices to ensure the continuity of identity. It follows that both dimensions must be recognised together, if cognitive and visceral templates of conflict are to be explained and shifted. This article applies a wide-angle memory studies lens to capture the two together and explore the changing parade-scape.

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Section: Paradingmentioning

confidence: 98%

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confidence: 98%

Parading Memory and Re-member-ing Conflict: Collective Memory in Transition in Northern Ireland

McQuaid

2015

Int J Polit Cult Soc

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“…The analytical vocabulary frequently employed when researching and discussing issues related to historical memory is imbued with expressions which largely appertain to the corporativist-marketizing-neoliberal jargon. Literature speaks for example about the 'management of the past' (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996;Abou Assi, 2010) or about 'memory governance' (Hourcade, 2015: 95), the actors involved in this process of management are seen as 'mnemonic/memory entrepreneurs' (e.g. Levy and Sznaider, 2010: 136;Kubik and Bernhard, 2014: 9, 25;Jelin, 2003;Abou Assi, 2010;Sierp and Wüstenberg, 2015;Neumeyer, 2017) or 'memory stakeholders' (Hourcade, 2015: 93).…”

Section: Memory and Neoliberalism: Concurrent Unfoldingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Literature speaks for example about the 'management of the past' (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996;Abou Assi, 2010) or about 'memory governance' (Hourcade, 2015: 95), the actors involved in this process of management are seen as 'mnemonic/memory entrepreneurs' (e.g. Levy and Sznaider, 2010: 136;Kubik and Bernhard, 2014: 9, 25;Jelin, 2003;Abou Assi, 2010;Sierp and Wüstenberg, 2015;Neumeyer, 2017) or 'memory stakeholders' (Hourcade, 2015: 93). Furthermore, steered by such entrepreneurs or stakeholders, memories and memory discourses are often understood as being in a state of competition with each other and hence vying for pre-eminence, even if important critical pleas against such interpretative frameworks have also been brought to the fore (Rothberg, 2009).…”

Section: Memory and Neoliberalism: Concurrent Unfoldingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Disentanglement of the Links between the Memory Boom and the Neoliberal Turn

Cercel¹

2020

Intersections

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The memory boom and the related emergence of cosmopolitan victimhood-centred memories, increasingly criticized for depoliticizing the past and thus contributing to the depoliticization of the present, have been simultaneous with the curtailment of the welfare state, the abandonment of the politics of redistribution, the erosion of social and economic rights, and the growth in social and economic inequalities. Yet if the latter are often being considered to be among the reasons leading to the current right-wing populist wave in Europe and elsewhere or at least are seen as entangled therewith, the relevance of the memory boom for these developments has not been properly interrogated. Against this background, this contribution makes a plea for a critical appreciation of the linkages between the memory boom and the global ascension of neoliberalism. It acknowledges the contemporaneity of the two phenomena, which have been fundamentally informing our present age, roughly since the end of the 1970s, and calls for a critical engagement with their interwoven character. In doing this, it argues that scholarship should pay particular attention to the relationship between past, present, and future that the neoliberal turn in its various shapes and guises implies, as well as to the regimes of temporality that underlie various instantiations of the memory boom. It ends by taking heed of recent theorizations in memory studies and by asking to what extent can they be used in order to have a better grasp of the critical juncture we are currently lying at and to contribute to a radical change of the political status quo. Thus, the article makes some preliminary steps towards disentangling the interconnections between the memory boom and the neoliberal turn, and aims to provide a blueprint for a substantial future research project that should look in depth at these entanglements.

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Defining Securitization, Enemy Images, and Memory

Gaufman

2016

New Security Challenges

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Collective memory and management of the past: the entrepreneurs of civil war memory in post‐war Lebanon

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Parading Memory and Re-member-ing Conflict: Collective Memory in Transition in Northern Ireland

Parading Memory and Re-member-ing Conflict: Collective Memory in Transition in Northern Ireland

Towards a Disentanglement of the Links between the Memory Boom and the Neoliberal Turn

Defining Securitization, Enemy Images, and Memory

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