scholarly journals Contesting Collective Representations of the Past:  The Politics of Memory in South Korea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Vink
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Collective Voice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collective Representations ◽  
Local Narratives

<p>Because monuments, memorials and other 'sites of memory' privilege particular collective interpretations of the past over others, they represent inherently contentious and political spaces. Contention over representing the past is particularly resonant in Korea, where sites of memory are imbued with strong, often polarised meanings. By focusing on two such sites in Korea, this thesis seeks to discuss the wider implications of the ongoing conflict over what representations of the past should be privileged. In Gwangju, the area surrounding the former provincial hall (docheong) is being redeveloped, part of the city's attempts to become 'reborn' as a capital city of human rights and democracy in Asia. However, to many citizens in Gwangju, this new image ignores the meaning that the city's dissident past holds for local communal understandings of identity. Conflict arose as citizens protested to keep the symbolism of the docheong intact, thus, helping to maintain local narratives of the past. In Seoul, Myeongdong Cathedral, a key symbol of protest and democracy in the 1970s and 1980s, is now having its meaning re-interpreted, as the Catholic Church de-couples religion from socio-political concerns. The conflicting meanings of Myeongdong Cathedral are representative of a wider divergence in Korean society, as apathy towards Korea's past grows among society at large while other segments appropriate the past to protest contemporary socio-political concerns. Ultimately, these Korean case studies emphasise that the meanings sites of memory convey are not fixed, and that groups are often able to appropriate sites to affirm their own narratives of the past and to emphasise their own collective voice. Therefore, sites that represent particular understandings of the past, while contentious, also provide a space for debate and, thus, help to understand ongoing concerns within wider society.</p>

scholarly journals Contesting Collective Representations of the Past:  The Politics of Memory in South Korea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Vink
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Collective Voice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collective Representations ◽  
Local Narratives

<p>Because monuments, memorials and other 'sites of memory' privilege particular collective interpretations of the past over others, they represent inherently contentious and political spaces. Contention over representing the past is particularly resonant in Korea, where sites of memory are imbued with strong, often polarised meanings. By focusing on two such sites in Korea, this thesis seeks to discuss the wider implications of the ongoing conflict over what representations of the past should be privileged. In Gwangju, the area surrounding the former provincial hall (docheong) is being redeveloped, part of the city's attempts to become 'reborn' as a capital city of human rights and democracy in Asia. However, to many citizens in Gwangju, this new image ignores the meaning that the city's dissident past holds for local communal understandings of identity. Conflict arose as citizens protested to keep the symbolism of the docheong intact, thus, helping to maintain local narratives of the past. In Seoul, Myeongdong Cathedral, a key symbol of protest and democracy in the 1970s and 1980s, is now having its meaning re-interpreted, as the Catholic Church de-couples religion from socio-political concerns. The conflicting meanings of Myeongdong Cathedral are representative of a wider divergence in Korean society, as apathy towards Korea's past grows among society at large while other segments appropriate the past to protest contemporary socio-political concerns. Ultimately, these Korean case studies emphasise that the meanings sites of memory convey are not fixed, and that groups are often able to appropriate sites to affirm their own narratives of the past and to emphasise their own collective voice. Therefore, sites that represent particular understandings of the past, while contentious, also provide a space for debate and, thus, help to understand ongoing concerns within wider society.</p>

Narrating atrocity: Genocide memorials, dark tourism, and the politics of memory

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 805-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Kenyon Lischer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Dark Tourism ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Interactions

AbstractAfter a genocide, leaders compete to fill the postwar power vacuum and establish their preferred story of the past. Memorialisation, including through building memorials, provides a cornerstone of political power. The dominant public narrative determines the plotline; it labels victims and perpetrators, interprets history, assigns meaning to suffering, and sets the post-atrocity political agenda. Therefore, ownership of the past, in terms of the public account, is deeply contested. Although many factors affect the emergence of a dominant atrocity narrative, this article highlights the role of international interactions with genocide memorials, particularly how Western visitors, funders, and consultants influence the government's narrative. Western consumption of memorials often reinforces aspects of dark tourism that dehumanise victims and discourage adequate context for the uninformed visitor. Funding and consultation provided by Western states and organisations – while offering distinct benefits – tends to encourage a homogenised atrocity narrative, which reflects the values of the global human rights regime and existing standards of memorial design rather than privileging the local particularities of the atrocity experience. As shown in the cases of Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia, Western involvement in public memory projects often strengthens the power of government narratives, which control the present by controlling the past.

Is Turkey coming to terms with its past? Politics of memory and majoritarian conservatism

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 691-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onur Bakiner
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Shared Memory ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
State Control ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Popular Appeal ◽  
Turkish State ◽  
Past Wrongs

There is unprecedented domestic and international interest in Turkey's political past, accompanied by a societal demand for truth and justice in addressing past human rights violations. This article poses the question: Is Turkey coming to terms with its past? Drawing upon the literature on nationalism, identity, and collective memory, I argue that the Turkish state has recently taken steps to acknowledge and redress some of the past human rights violations. However, these limited and strategic acts of acknowledgment fall short of initiating a more comprehensive process of addressing past wrongs. The emergence of the Justice and Development Party as a dominant political force brings along the possibility that the discarded Kemalist memory framework will be replaced by what I callmajoritarian conservatism, a new government-sanctioned shared memory that promotes uncritical and conservative-nationalist interpretations of the past that have popular appeal, while enforcing silence on critical historiographies that challenge this hegemonic memory and identity project. Nonetheless, majoritarian conservatism will probably fail to assert state control over memory and history, even under a dominant government, as unofficial memory initiatives unsettle the hegemonic appropriation of the past.

Provision of Remedies for Violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Comparative Study of the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-318
Author(s):  
Roman Girma Teshome
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Regional Monitoring ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
To Receive

The effectiveness of human rights adjudicative procedures partly, if not most importantly, hinges upon the adequacy of the remedies they grant and the implementation of those remedies. This assertion also holds water with regard to the international and regional monitoring bodies established to receive individual complaints related to economic, social and cultural rights (hereinafter ‘ESC rights’ or ‘socio-economic rights’). Remedies can serve two major functions: they are meant, first, to rectify the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage sustained by the particular victim, and second, to resolve systematic problems existing in the state machinery in order to ensure the non-repetition of the act. Hence, the role of remedies is not confined to correcting the past but also shaping the future by providing reforming measures a state has to undertake. The adequacy of remedies awarded by international and regional human rights bodies is also assessed based on these two benchmarks. The present article examines these issues in relation to individual complaint procedures that deal with the violation of ESC rights, with particular reference to the case laws of the three jurisdictions selected for this work, i.e. the United Nations, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems.

Les héritages chrétiens: quel avenir?

Moreana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (Number 176) (1) ◽  
pp. 175-190
Author(s):  
Bernard Bourdin
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Politics And Religion

The legacy from Christianity unquestionably lies at the root of Europe, even if not exclusively. It has taken many aspects from the Middle Ages to modern times. If the Christian heritage is diversely understood and accepted within the European Union, the reason is essentially due to its political and religious significance. However, its impact in politics and religion has often been far from negative, if we will consider what secular societies have derived from Christianity: human rights, for example, and a religious affiliation which has been part and parcel of national identity. The Christian legacy has to be acknowledged through a critical analysis which does not deny the truth of the past but should support a European project built around common values.

SIEĆ PARAFIALNA W DIECEZJI EŁCKIEJ

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
Ryszard Skawiński
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Major Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Way

The Diocese of Ełk was established in 1992 as a major change in the structure of the Churchin Poland. It connects the land belonging in the past to various forms of the Polish state and theGerman state, as well as the Russian state. As a result of these conditions, the parishes of theRoman Catholic Church in this area have arisen in different circumstances and have distincttraditions. Parishes are currently experiencing similar problems. Within the Diocese of Ełk therewas an increase in the number of parishes and the process of unifying the way they functioned.

Justice, Acknowledgment, and Collective Memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Place Names ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regime Transitions

In regime transitions, a number of mechanisms are utilized to memorialize the past and to reject the ideas associated with human rights abused of the prior regime. This is often done through truth commissions, apologies, memorials, museums, changes in place names, national holidays, and other symbolic measures. In the United States, some efforts along these lines have been undertaken, but on the whole they have been very limited and inadequate. In addition, many symbols and memorials associated with the past, such as Confederate monuments and the Confederate Battle Flag, continue to be displayed. Hence while some progress has been made on these issues, much more needs to be done.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document