«In Memory of the Innocent Victims…»? Bleiburg – controversial “place of memory” in Croatia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
M. V. Belov ◽  
S. V. Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Functional Model ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Politics ◽  
British Military ◽  
Military Administration ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
National Reconciliation ◽  
Official Status

The article is devoted to the Bleiburg myth in the politics of memory in modern Croatia. In mid-May 1945 the contingents which were trying to move to the West and avoid the possible reprisals against them by the victorious communists were transferred to the Yugoslav partisans by the British military administration. Among them prevailed the members of Croatian Ustasha and Slovene Home Guard, but there were also representatives of other nationalities of Yugoslavia. Soon after the war all the victims of the massacres that took place in 1945 and those who died from hunger and illness during the transfer were Croatized through the efforts of the Croatian emigration. After the collapse of Yugoslavia and during the war (1991–1995), the Bleiburg myth began to acquire official status. The return of Ustasha soldiers as heroes to the public sphere under F. Tudjman was due to the concept of «national reconciliation», which was carried out not through awareness of guilt and acceptance of responsibility for the crimes committed, but through their full or partial justification.The first part of the article reviews the research literature on the Bleiburg myth, the stages of its formation and functional significance. The second part examines the public debate around the Sarajevo mass for the murdered and other commemorative events in the anniversary in May 2020. They are compared with the evaluations of the Bleiburg narrative-ritual complex expressed in the literature.The 75th anniversary of Bleiburg commemorated in an atmosphere of fatigue from the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic and on the eve of the Croatian parliamentary elections, demonstrated deep social division, the contested character of history and the political interest in discussing this tragedy. Comparison of the research literature with publications in the mass press indicates the obviousness of the functional model of the Bleiburg myth for a significant segment of Croatian society. Although the demand for renewal of the memorial repertoire seems to have increased, it is still not enough for the transition to the new politics of memory.

Pemberitaan Media Tentang Transgender Perempuan di Madura

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29
Author(s):  
Abdul Aziz ◽  
Mohammad Wardi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
The Public ◽  
Marginal Groups ◽  
Marginal Group ◽  
Field Data Collection ◽  
The Public Sphere

This study focuses on the news about the existence of female transgender (transpuan) on the island of Madura, the news about transpuan Madura in different media, namely merdeka.com, okezone.com, suarajatimpost.com and suarapamekasan.com. The research method used in this research is the method of literature research, literature study on research dominated by non-field data collection. The results show first, the existence of transpuan in Madura in the public sphere is no longer seen as a marginal group. Secondly, Journalists from a number of media in charge of coverage in Madura, able to present objective values about the role of transpuan in the public sphere. Third, transpuan that was appointed to civil servants gives a picture to the public that gender is not a fundamental issue for the Maduranes as a minority and marginal groups that are considered outside the line of reasonableness.  

Famine, Memory, and Politics in the Post-Soviet Space: Contrasting Echoes of Collectivization in Ukraine and Kazakhstan

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-491
Author(s):  
James Richter
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Constraints ◽  
Post Soviet Space

AbstractStalin’s collectivization campaigns and the associated famine killed millions in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, yet the two countries commemorate the events quite differently. In Ukraine, the Holodomor (death by hunger) occupies a prominent place in the public sphere and is remembered most frequently as a genocidal policy against the Ukrainian nation. In Kazakhstan, the famine takes up little space in the public arena, and officials remain reluctant to call it a genocide. This article explores these differences using two models explaining variation in the politics of memory: one emphasizing the instrumental calculations of political elites and the other emphasizing the historical and cultural constraints that frame contemporary debates. These two models complement each other rather than compete. The contest over the famine in Ukraine was in part a consequence of eastern and western Ukraine’s differing histories, but it intensified when governing politicians deployed the memory of the famine instrumentally in the 2000s. In Kazakhstan, political calculations led the regime to emphasize unity and stability over divisive debates about the past, but historical factors made depoliticizing the famine feasible.

Not All the Past Needs To Be Used: Features of Fidesz’s Politics of Memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Benazzo
Keyword(s):  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
National History ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
The Public ◽  
Nazi Occupation ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

Abstract Since the 2010 elections, the current Hungarian government has proven to be a very active and restless “memory warrior” (Bernard and Kubik 2014). The ruling party, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, shows both a neat understanding of national history and the ability to transmit it by the adoption of different tools. This politics of memory is instrumental in granting the government political legitimacy. By ruling out oppositional actors and their historical narratives from the public sphere, Fidesz presents itself as the primary champion of Hungarian national sovereignty. Hungarians is, then, portrayed as a nation that has long suffered from the yoke of external oppression in which the Ottomans, the Habsburgs, the Soviets and eventually the Europeans figure as the enemies of the Hungarians. Specific collective memories, including the Treaty of Trianon (1920), Nazi occupation (1944–5) and socialist period (1948–90), are targeted so as to enact a sense of national belonging and pride, as well as resentment against foreigners. Moreover, in its rejection of the pluralism of memories and yearn for the homogenization of national history by marginalizing unfitting elements, this politics of memory is consistent with the System of National Cooperation (Batory 2016) that Fidesz’s administration has tried to establish in Hungary. This paper carries out an in-depth analysis of Fidesz’s multilayered politics of memory by investigating both its internal and external dimensions separately. In the final section, conclusions are drawn up to summarize its key tenets. Official speeches, legislative acts, and four interviews with key historians of Hungary have been used as sources.

scholarly journals Deficiencies of Official Bilingualism in the Finno-Ugric Republics of Post-Soviet Russia: A Legal Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (62) ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Zamyatin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Regional Language ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Official Status ◽  
Local Languages

As a part of the “parade of sovereignties” during the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the national republics of Russia designated both Russian and local languages as their state languages. The co-official status of the dominant Russian language by default prevented full-fledged official bilingualism, and serious steps were needed to promote non-dominant local languages in the public sphere. Beyond a mere formal recognition of their official status, the republican authorities passed regulations in order to provide institutional support for the local languages, the amount of which varied across republics. However, the extent of such regulations remains understudied and the best way to evaluate it would be a comparative analysis. What was the level of institutionalization of the official status in the case of titular languages in Russia’s republics? This study examines various solutions for framing the official status of titular languages in regional language legislations in order to understand the patterns of institutionalization. The republics titled after the Finno-Ugric peoples were chosen as case studies for the comparison. The study reveals that language legislation contains serious deficiencies in institutionalization of the official status of titular languages, which impede possibilities for their practical use in office.

scholarly journals Mapping the research on museums and the public sphere: a scoping review

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Vårheim ◽  
Roswitha Skare
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Knowledge Synthesis ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

PurposeIn museum research, museums are held as vital in maintaining the public sphere. This scoping review takes stock of the present status of museum–public sphere research by providing an overview of the existing literature as a point of departure for future research. In short, it maps the research aims, theoretical concepts, research methods and findings within the field and identifies research gaps.Design/methodology/approachA scoping review methodology is used to provide a knowledge synthesis of the museum–public sphere literature. This approach is instrumental for researching multi-disciplinary, fragmented or underdeveloped research fields. Reviews can help identify otherwise easily overlooked gaps in the research literature and are an essential tool.FindingsOverwhelmingly, the published literature consists of case studies, some of which are theoretically ambitious. Still, cases are selected without explicit goals regarding analytical or theoretical generalization, and the studies are not placed within a theory-building framework. Moreover, the museum–public sphere research primarily focuses on museums in the core Anglosphere countries and is conducted by researchers affiliated with institutions in those countries. The museum–community relationship is a common research theme addressing engagement with the public through either visitor participation or community participation.Originality/valueThis is the first published scoping review or systematically conducted review and knowledge synthesis of the museum–public sphere research literature to our knowledge. The article finds and discusses a range of research gaps that need to be addressed theoretically and empirically.

scholarly journals Gendering Memory: Intersectional Aspects of the Polish Politics of Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-118
Author(s):  
Inga B. Kuźma ◽  
Edyta Pietrzak
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The City ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Core Problem

The article is devoted to the process of gendering memory as a counterpoint to the politicization of memory observed in the Polish context. The core problem of the paper is a description of a local case of this type of gender ‘memory practising’ in the area of the public urban sphere, specifically one created by the Łódź Women’s Heritage Trail Foundation (https://www.facebook.com/ŁódźkiSzlakKobiet) – a gender-profiled female grass-roots initiative that is concerned with the city’s past. The article consists of three main parts referring to, respectively, the functioning of memory in the urban public sphere as a form of dialogue (hemerneutic-interpretative anthropology with Jurgen Habermas’ and Seyla Benhabib’s theories is the theoretical foundation here), the process of gendering memory (appearing alongside the narrative phrase and feminist proposals for the interpretation of memory as a form of its pluralization), and the presentation of the activities within the Łódź Women’s HeritageTrail Foundation’s particular initiative – namely ‘Women Routes in Łódź’ – as a kind of case study for the city as a landscape of memory. The paper deals with the tension observed between the politics of memory and the political practice, and the alternative memories that arise from the idea of multiplicity and polyphony, including the voice of women. The authors raise the issue of the genderization of memory in the context of an inquiry into how the pluralism of collective memory and the diversification of the public sphere develops as a result of the discourses and operation of the alternative memory, including gender-focused memory.

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