Linking the Local and the Transnational: Rethinking Memory Politics in Europe

Sierp, Aline; Wüstenberg, Jenny

doi:10.1080/14782804.2015.1058244

Cited by 57 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…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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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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“…Thus, further analysis of memory activism in the postwar post-Yugoslav sphere calls for additional empirical research that will approach the post-Yugoslav space as a Region of Memory and of networks of memory activism. 22 The analysis of memory activism as a strand of peace activism holds the potential for deepening of existing regional cooperation and, as such, linking the local to the transnational (Sierp & Wüstenberg, 2015) and allowing the circulation of transnational memory (De Cesari & Rigney, 2014). Such regional networks have the potential to form and solidify a region of memory that will allow further theorization on transnational memory activism.…”

Section: Conclusion: Toward the Transnationalization Of Memory Activmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Too Young to Remember Determined Not to Forget”

Fridman

2018

International Criminal Justice Review

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This article examines memory activism among the young generation of activists in Serbia, born during or toward the end of the wars of the 1990s. By analyzing the actions of members of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), a Belgrade-based nongovernmental organization, as memory activism, this article aims to deepen the analysis of and discussions about current mnemonic processes in Serbia and to point at a dynamic space of action and engaged citizenship. I discuss the actions and positions of those young activists as related to the contested memories of the wars of the breakup of Yugoslavia and to the legacies of the 1990s. More specifically, I analyze their responses to, and interactions with, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicts who returned to Serbia and reclaimed their engagement in public life. The text is based on data collected in several stages of field research since 2010 that included observations of and in-depth interviews with YIHR activists in Serbia. It addresses the following main questions: What constitutes memory activism in Serbia? What new tactics do the young generation of memory activists employ and how innovative are their practices when engaging with the public on issues related to challenging silence and denial in their society? How do they articulate their claims and demands as related to the issue of returning ICTY convicts, and especially of those who are now public figures in Serbia? I conclude that at the heart of memory activism as examined in the case of Serbia stands a regional and even transnational network of mnemonic practices, revolving around similar mnemonic battles, taking place in some of the other successor states of the former Yugoslavia as well. As such, further analysis of memory activism in the postwar post-Yugoslav sphere will require additional empirical and analytical research of this region as a region of memory.

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“…. molds the global," 18 without, however, necessarily assuming or reifying the very thing that needs to be explained-namely, that and how local (and national) discourses and self-images often remain relevant in discussions about the past.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational Memories, National Memory Regimes: Commemorating the Armenian Genocide in Germany

Nienass¹

2020

German Studies Review

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Linking the Local and the Transnational: Rethinking Memory Politics in Europe

Cited by 57 publications

References 26 publications

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

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

“Too Young to Remember Determined Not to Forget”

Transnational Memories, National Memory Regimes: Commemorating the Armenian Genocide in Germany

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