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Conflict, Memory, and Memory Activism: Dealing with Difficult Pasts

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

Synonyms

Alternative commemorations; Calendars; Contested pasts; Counter memory; Memory; Memory activism

Description

This entry discusses the role of memory studies in the analysis of societies in and after conflict and in the study of processes of peacebuilding and peace formation (Richmond 2013) from below. It addresses the following questions: What are the ways in which the social organization of memory shape processes of post-conflict remembrance? What are the modes in which communities and groups preserve and remember the past, commemorate it, deny, or obliterate it? What is the role of memory activists and alternative commemorative events in processes of reconciliation? By discussing the dynamics of memory work and memory activism, and the tensions between state-sponsored and alternative counter-memories, this entry underlines the importance of the study of spaces of memory as an arena of political struggles. Memory regimes and mnemonic actors, state calendars, and commemorative...

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Correspondence to Orli Fridman .

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Fridman, O. (2020). Conflict, Memory, and Memory Activism: Dealing with Difficult Pasts. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_38-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_38-1

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