This article looks at how symbols in the urban environment are intentionally produced and modified to regulate a community's collective memory. Our urban environment is filled with symbols in the form of images, text, and structures that embody certain narratives about the past. Once those symbols are introduced into the city space they take a life span of their own in a continuous process of reproduction and reconstruction by different social actors. In the context of the city space of Cairo in the five years following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, I will look on the one side at efforts of activists to preserve the memory of the revolution through graffiti murals and the utilization of public space, and from the other, the authority's efforts to replace those initiatives with its own official narrative. Building on the concept of collective memory, as well as Bartlett's studies of serial reproductions and theorization of reconstructive remembering, I will follow the reproduction of different symbols in the city and how they were perceived and remembered by pedestrians.
Farage or the French Resistance of Le Pen -but because it seems more and more likely that they are bringing us back to the past as it actually happened -a past where populism successfully brought nationalist leaders to power. In this context, it seems particularly crucial to understand how we relate to our history, how we learn from it and the consequences it may have for the world we live in. These are the questions this special issue explores by adopting a cultural psychological perspective on collective memory -the lay representations of history -and proposing both theoretical and empirical contributions.In this editorial, we will try to first make the case for the political and social importance of collective memory. Second, we will argue why theoretical discussions -not just empirical research -are necessary to tackle these issues. Third, we will discuss the role we believe, cultural psychology should play in the current context and the dangers of turning it into a field disconnected from social and political realities. Finally, we will present the contents of this issue and how we hope it tackles some of the problems raised in this editorial.
The social and political importance of collective memoryStating that collective memory studies particularly matter in today's post-truth world could be seen as a mere rhetorical move -after all, doesn't all expertise
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