scholarly journals The useful past in negotiation: Adolescents' use of history in negotiation of inter-group conflict

Author(s):  
Tsafrir Goldberg

Much of the concern with young people's historical knowledge centres on factual attainment or disciplinary skills. However, relatively little attention is paid to the relevance that young people attribute to history and how they use the past, and various social representations of history, to relate to the present. Research in this realm tends to emphasize the impact of collective memory narratives on individuals, rather than individuals' agency in using them. In this article, I will examine the ways 155 Jewish and Arab Israeli adolescents related the past to the present as they discussed the Jewish–Arab conflict and its resolution. Discussants made diverse references to the past: from family history, via biblical allusions and collective memories, to formal, schooling-based historical documents. Individuals used these references to the past to negotiate the present and future of inter-group relations. Furthermore, they made strategic use of references to others' narratives. Thus historical knowledge and collective narratives, which are usually perceived as constraining and structuring learners' perceptions, can be seen as repositories of resources and affordances.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enika Abazi ◽  
Albert Doja

In this article, we explore various forms of travel writing, media reporting, diplomatic record, policy-making, truth claims and expert accounts in which different narrative perspectives on the Balkan wars, both old (1912–1913) and new (1991–1999), have been most evident. We argue that the ways in which these perspectives are rooted in different temporalities and historicisations have resulted in the construction of commonplace and time-worn representations. In practical terms, we take issue with several patterns of narratives that have led to the sensationalism of media industry and the essentialisation of collective memory. Taken together as a common feature of contemporary policy and analysis in the dominant international opinion, politics and scholarship, these narrative patterns show that historical knowledge is conveyed in ways that make present and represent the accounts of another past, and the ways in which beliefs collectively held by actors in international society are constructed as media events and public hegemonic representations. The aim is to show how certain moments of rupture are historicised, and subsequently used and misused to construct an anachronistic representation of Southeast Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arfiansyah

This article argues that Gayonese community practice Islam through the culture and less concern with religious texts. Although the wave of islamization since the colonial time and post-independence was high, the process does not succeed in introducing what the local scholars called as Islamic tradition. Such situation forces the following ulama to defend culture by finding justification for every practice instead of abolishing it. There are two factors leading to the situation. First, ulama of colonial and post-colonial time did not succeed in finding what they called as Islamic tradition replacing the existing tradition. second, lacking of regeneration of reformer Ulama that drive the living reformer ulama to support culture by inserting Islamic values and norms into the culture. This effort is crucial as the Gayonese refers more to the culture than the religious texts. This Article historically studies the development of Islam in Gayonese community. It frames its historical analysis from the Dutch colonial period to post independence of Indonesia Republic. It generally observes the impact of islamization in the past to the current situation. This article brings back the fundamental question in socio-anthropological studies about Islam that why do Muslim who refer to same source of text understand and practice Islam in widely various expression. The question is applied to this research exploring the development of Islam in Gayonese community inhabiting Central Aceh and Bener Meriah District. Thus, this research questions how did Islam develop in colonial time and its impact to the local culture? did there a debate about religion and culture take place during the colonial time and post-independence of Indonesia?  How does the past event affect the current practice of Islam in Gayonese community? the questions are explored historically by collecting relevant literatures and collective memory of the local people. The collective memory data were collected from 2015 to 2019


Author(s):  
Adam Czarnota ◽  
Justyna Jezierska ◽  
Michał Stambulski

This paper aims at explaining the concepts of collective memory, institutions, politics, law, as well as relations between them. By means of a short explanation of a network of mutual relations between these notions, we want to show how law and collective memories interact and how the relation between them is formed. At the same time, we see three modes of relations between collective memories and law: 1) past before the law, 2) memory laws and 3) law as collective memory. The first view consists in evaluating the past under a court trial. The second one in creating legal rules which promote or demand commemoration of a specific vision of the past. The third approach perceives law itself as institutionalized collective memory.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 319-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helyom Viana Telles ◽  
Lynn Alves

This work arises from the reflections generated by a post-doctoral study that investigates how history games can contribute to the production and dissemination of representations, pictures, and imaginaries of the past. We understand history games to be digital electronic games whose structure contains narratives or simulations of historical elements (Neves, 2010). The term notion of “border works” is used by Glezer and Albieri (2009) to discuss the role of literary and artistic works that, standing outside the historiographical field and having a fictional character, are forms of the dissemination of historical knowledge and approximation with the past. We want to show how, under the impact of the linguistic turn, the boundaries between history and fiction have been blurred. Authors such as White (1995) and Veyne (2008) found both a convergence with and identification between historical narrative and literary narrative that interrogates the epistemological status of history as a science. These critiques result in an appreciation of fictional works as both knowledge and the dissemination of historical knowledge of the past. We then examine the elements of the audiovisual narratives of electronic games (Calleja, 2013; Frasca, 1999; Jull, 2001; Murray, 2003; Zagalo, 2009) in an attempt to understand their specificity. Next, we investigate the place of the narrative and historical simulations of electronic games in contemporary culture (Fogu, 2009). Finally, we discuss how historical knowledge is appropriated and represented by history games (Arruda, 2009; Kusiak, 2002) and analyze their impact on the production of a historical consciousness or an imaginary about the past.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-169
Author(s):  
Ahmed Joudar

Abstract This study concentrates on memory in Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family because it is the foundation for the whole novel. Ondaatje’s attempt creates a relationship with the past by performing all acts of the journey in physical and imaginary performances of listening and reproducing. His attempt depends on his own memory; however, his memory does not coincide with stories he has heard, and the historical documents tend to conflict with each other. In the interior of his travels, Ondaatje reveals the extent of his isolation and the impact of his displacement. As he narrates the stories, he faces difficulties in distinguishing between rumors and lies, in organizing fragments of knowledge, and in explaining challenges tied to his methods of cultural revival. These challenges are met in the non-linear and sometimes stunning text plans which he uses.


Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492199953
Author(s):  
Donna Chu

In this study, 20 journalists who had worked on news about the anniversaries of mass protests in Hong Kong were interviewed. Given that most had been born after the historical events being commemorated, this paper aims to understand how young journalists comprehend and cover such old news. It also uncovers the journalistic processes behind the related anniversary journalism and discusses the role of journalism in constructing collective memory. The study traced how journalists normally do their research and what they consider in the production process. We found that journalists, as with other assignments, generally lack the time to conduct thorough research. Instead of venturing into hard facts or heated debates, most opted to focus on the personal and the emotional. For the personal, they relied on stories told by living witnesses and participants. For the emotional, they tapped into the cultural environment as well as their peers to determine appropriate feelings and moral tones. Professional norms compelled them to find new angles for old news and package the stories in ways that would engage and attract their audience. All of these factors shape how journalists tell the stories about the past; these stories in turn become new resources in the ‘inventory’ of collective memories.


Author(s):  
А. Буллер ◽  
А.А. Линченко

В статье проанализированы особенности трансформации аксиологических функций медиа в отношении общественных представлений о прошлом в контексте антагонистического, космополитического и агонического проектов коллективной памяти. Обосновывается мысль, что переход от антагонистического к космополитическому типу коллективных воспоминаний в прошлом столетии и обозначившийся в начале XXI в. поворот к элементам агонического типа способствуют трансформации функций медиа и повышению их аксиологического статуса как среды развертывания дискурса исторической ответственности. Это связано с усилением роли и значения медиа в качестве инструмента конструирования самого дискурса исторической ответственности, а также инструмента демаркации различных ценностных сред обращения к прошлому и их носителей – сообществ памяти. The article deals with actual problems of the transformation of the axiological functions of media in relation to public representations of the past in the context of antagonistic, cosmopolitan and agonistic projects of collective memory. The transition from the antagonistic to the cosmopolitan type of collective memories in the last century and the turn towards elements of the agonistic type that has emerged today contribute to the transformation of media functions. This transformation is associated with the strengthening not so much of their epistemological status as their axiological status in relation to the past. The axiological status of media is associated with understanding it as a significant environment for the deployment of the discourse of historical responsibility. Modern media act as a tool for constructing the very discourse of historical responsibility, as well as a tool for demarcating various value environments of referring to the past and their carriers - communities of memory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Khlevnyuk

The Internet has transformed history and collective memory. Narratives of the past are produced and perceived faster and by larger communities. In other words, the Internet facilitates the most pervasive broadcasting of historical narratives ever known. However, it is not only speed and reach that characterize the impact of the digital revolution on memory cultures. It has also led to a shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting, propelled by a growing number of online memory agents. As a great number of people have access to the Internet, even memory agents with a particular view on the past can find their audience. Thus, the Internet, and social media in particular, facilitates the fragmentation of memory and narrowcasting. To illustrate this point, I studied Russian social media groups dedicated to the adoration of Stalin. Generally, Stalinists are perceived as a homogeneous group sharing a glorified memory of the Soviet leader. However, my analysis reveals that there are at least three types of online Stalinism that promote different narratives and have different agendas. This finding is not merely shedding new light on the persistence of the Stalin cult, but is also theoretically generative, indicating additional conditions for the fragmentation of memories in countries with contested and toxic pasts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Le Han

This study examines how collective memories of a public event, along with various journalistic practices, take shape in social media as the event develops. By analyzing messages posted during the first 8 days after a 23 July 2011 high-speed train collision accident in China on Weibo, a leading Chinese micro-blogging platform, this study finds three types of mnemonic practices on this platform: online commemoration, memory accumulation, and the first draft of history. The extensive media coverage, nonstop updates, and blurred lines between reporting and archiving produce firsthand accounts and fragmented narratives for collective memory. Weibo allows the use of language from which journalists and media-affiliated groups reap greatest benefit. Journalism draws on mnemonic practices to organize collective pondering over crises and current power structures in a shrinking space of online expression. Within the rapidly changing landscape of Chinese social media, this memory pattern developed earlier gradually loses its political meaning, although it persists in subsequent events. Theoretical implications of this study for the impact of digital media on collective memory are also discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 646-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eemeli Hakoköngäs ◽  
Inari Sakki

This study focuses on the connection between social representations of history and collective memory from the perspective of elementary concepts of social representations theory: anchoring, objectification and naturalization. The aims of the study are to arrive at a conceptual clarity of this connection and demonstrate how to apply basic concepts of social representations theory to the study of collective memory. The study also focuses on the naturalized characteristics of Finnish history. The data consist of the covers of twenty Finnish history books between the years 1965 and 2014. All the covers are embellished with typography or visual images. The covers were analysed using a semiotic approach in which the interest is in the description (denotation), the associations (connotation) and the meaning system these construe (myth). The analysis shows how national history is concretized with visual images (objectification), how the meaning of representation is conveyed (anchoring) and how collective memory is maintained (naturalization), transmitted and shaped during the years. The results show how the stable collective memories and changing social representations of history are interacting. The most frequently used visual element was the colour blue, which alludes to the Finnish flag, a symbol of the nation that represents the core of Finnish history. The study suggests that it is possible to conceptualize collective memories as naturalized social representations of history. It shows how processes of anchoring and objectification serve as tools of collective memory and how the naturalized conceptions are subtly changed. In addition, the study develops the use of visual semiotic analysis in social representations research.


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