Political Power, Collective Memory, and American Central Cities: The Discourses of the Conservative Elite`s Counter-Memory of the City

Abstract

This study examines the social construction of collective memory regarding American cities. Inspired by postmodern theory, both critical and urban, it argues that, in its efforts to expand its political power, the Conservative Elite has successfully waged a thirty year "mnemonic war" over the public memory of America's central cities. It describes how in their attack, the Conservatives strategically utilized four vehicles of public discourse: political rhetoric, mass media depictions, think tank scholarship, and spatial semiosis. In doing so, the Conservatives have crafted a false consciousness or counter-memory of the city, a depiction which has served to diminish the social and economic value of U.S. central cities, and ultimately, characterized them as Foucaultian heterotopias of deviance (anti-utopias). By recasting the collective memory of the city, the Conservatives have harnessed and defused its historical and present power, squashed any related dissent, and expanded their influence across the metropolitan, national, and international landscapes.

The Sight of Loss

“…An alternative explanation is that hegemony or a self‐defeating doxa shapes the narrative of the fall (Bourdieu 1984; Gramsci 1971; Legg 2007). Summarizing relevant literature, Jacobs (2008) argues that conservative elites have naturalized a memory of urban decline that blames liberal policies, organized labor, and the immorality of poor racial minorities. To do so, conservative elites use political rhetoric, mass media, think‐tanks, and spatial semiosis.…”