The Creation of Transnational Memory Spaces: Professionalization and Commercialization

Abstract

In the age of globalization, local memories of past violence are often dislocated from their material places as remembrance is transpiring in transnational memory spaces. Historical events and commemorative memory practices increasingly transcend national boundaries and change the way memories of historical violence, atrocity, and genocide are represented in the transnational memoryscape. This article explores how the professionalization and commercialization of museums and memorials of genocide and crimes against humanity are modes of "making the past present" and "the local global". Furthermore, professionalization and commercialization are processes through which local memories are translated into global discourses that are comprehensible to and recognizable by a global audience. In this article, we disentangle local memory places (understood as material, physical sites) from transnational memory spaces (understood as immaterial, ideational spaces) in order to investigate the transformation of local places of memory into transnational spaces of memory. At the same time, we show that, while these processes are often understood interchangeably, professionalization and commercialization are separate mechanisms and tend to be used strategically to translate memory discourses to specific audiences. These two processes can be seen as producing a standardized memorial site and a homogenization of memory in the transnational memory space. The article illustrates this theoretical reasoning with empirical findings from fieldwork in South Africa, where we zoom in on Robben Island outside Cape Town, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where we focus on the Galerija 11/07/95 in Sarajevo, which commemorates the atrocities committed in Srebrenica in 1995.

Locating Transnational Memory

“…As researchers, we are not only observing these phenomenon, we are participating in them. Björkdahl and Kappler (2019) reflect that Bthrough multiple visits to our diagnostic sites, we were ourselves part of the transnationalization of memory. Our reading of those memorial sites as presented in this article is therefore not only a methodology, but also an ontological indication of how memory travels across local, national and international communities^.…”

“…And while some places are actively Bmade transnationalt hrough such practices of linking, other memorial sites are transnational from the outset by virtue of remembering a past that was itself transnational, such as the struggle against apartheid or the mass-mediated genocide in Bosnia. Björkdahl and Kappler (2019) call these diagnostic sites Bthat hold in place collective memories that have a transnational character as they speak to globalized memory discourses^. While such sites might be expected to be transnational Bautomatically,^they in fact do not require any less agency than those places where the past appears more localized.…”

Reading socio-political and spatial dynamics through graffiti in conflict-affected societies

“…It has inspired a range of debates on hybridity, spatiality and the value of the everyday for IR (see for example these special issues: Forsyth et al 2017;Björkdahl et al 2019).…”

“…Questions of anonymity and visibility are key; artists may want to protect their identity and write themselves out of the artwork. Visibility is often linked to debates about the commodification of art and artwork or professionalization and commercialisation of memory spaces (Björkdahl and Kappler 2019). For example, in post-war Colombia, graffiti can provide an alternative income to drug dealing and a way out of poverty and a culture of toxic masculinity.…”

A 5* Destination: the Creation of New Transnational Moral Spaces of Remembrance on TripAdvisor

“…In other words, the way transnational memory is shaped is also always connected to the specific site; it is not detached from it and "somewhere up there". This is relevant because, as Björkdahl and Kappler argue, local norm entrepreneurs might intentionally translate local memory for global audiences through mechanisms of commercialisation (with the financially strong international tourism industry being a lucrative target in this regard) and professionalisation (Björkdahl and Kappler 2019). This act of translation renders local memory more comprehensible on a global scale so that (international) visitors to the sites can relate-and in the context of TripAdvisor communicate-their own experience better.…”