Who chooses to remember? Diaspora participation in memorialization initiatives

Abstract

Diaspora actors demonstrate their ability to play a role in a variety of political and social processes in their homelands, including transitional justice. Transnational diaspora memorialization initiatives have become embedded and sustained within different contexts. This paper examines how the causal mechanism of coordination affects memorialization initiatives. It compares memorialization efforts in two localities in Bosnia and Herzegovina with different levels of coordination between diaspora, returnees, and local institutional actors. Centralized coordination with the help of a homeland institution enriches existing memory narratives and aims to forward transitional justice. Memorialization and commemorative practices initiated by diaspora without homeland institutional backing can lead to coordination among a more diverse set of actors, ultimately fostering new, alternative, and more inclusive memory narratives.

Transnational Activism against Genocide Denial: Protesting Peter Handke’s Nobel Prize in Literature

“…This research challenges earlier held notions that portrayed a negative influence of diasporas (Hall and Swain 2008). Indeed, the Bosnian diaspora involved in the present example has considerable potential to make such positive contributions (e.g., Karabegović 2014; Koinova and Karabegović 2017; Halilovich et al 2018; Karabegović 2019; Paul 2021). To explore transnational mobilization processes by diaspora entrepreneurs, researchers taking a constructivist approach to diasporas often employ canonical concepts developed by social movement studies (e.g., Sökefeld 2006; Adamson 2012; Quinsaat 2013; Koinova 2016; Koinova and Karabegović 2019).…”

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“…Coordination among various stakeholders, it has been shown, improves possibilities for genuine efforts toward transitional justice. Where previously embattled parties need to be re-integrated, creating dialogue about how to imagine the commemorative structure can help to smooth out ideological differences (Karabegović, 2019).…”

Digital remembrance: Honouring Srebrenica genocide victims via #ŠtoTeNema

“…One part of the literature on ŠTO TE NEMA has mainly focused on diaspora mobilisation, how it finds consensus within ŠTO TE NEMA (Karabegović 2014) and engages with local communities and/or memory institutions, such as Srebrenica–Potočari Memorial Center (Karabegović 2019). Another part has analysed the role of the arts (including ŠTO TE NEMA) in genocide prevention (Murphy 2021a) and the emerging new kinds of monuments ( ŠTO TE NEMA as a case study (Murphy 2021b; Whigham 2023).…”