Exploring the Movement-Memory Nexus: Insights and Ways Forward

Abstract

In recent years, scholarly interest in the interconnections between social movements and memory has been growing significantly. In this article, we outline and discuss this emerging focus of research on the movement-memory nexus with the goal of systematizing it and pointing to ways forward. We begin by delineating the interdisciplinary nature of the field, its central characteristics, and its disciplinary and conceptual foundations. We then identify and discuss three major areas of research, namely, research on memories of movements, memory in movements, and movements about memory. We close by outlining the debates, insights and pose several questions with the aim of bringing the different strands of research on the movement-memory nexus into a closer dialogue.

Does transnational contention lead to transnational memory? The online visual memory of the February 2003 anti-Iraq War protests

“…Since the early 2000s, scholars in social movement studies looked at memory to shed light on 'protest dynamic and outcomes,' while, around the same time, researchers in memory studies examined 'mnemonic processes' through social movements (for an overview see: Merrill et al, 2020). In the last two years, scholars from both fields attempted to reconcile these approaches in a 'memory-activism nexus' (Rigney, 2018), a 'movement-memory nexus' (Daphi & Zamponi, 2019), or a 'movement-Figure 1. User 'Gacio on Wikipedia, 'The peace demonstration in Rome, Italy, on 15 February 2003, against Iraq War (15 February 2003.…”

“…Traditionally, memory studies scholars focused on the differences between official, top-down, and state-sponsored memory and bottom-up, grassroots, 'vernacular' memory (Bodnar, 1994). More recently, work that focusses on the role of 'civil society actors' in memory work challenged this dichotomy (Daphi & Zamponi, 2019). The LDA model trained on the dataset allows the identification of topic probabilities per document.…”

“…Rather than the birth of a European public sphere, the 'legacy of the global movement, the aggregated, networked smart crowds of 15 February,' could only be grasped within 'a theory of global civil society. ' Building on efforts to connect social movement and memory studies (Daphi & Zamponi, 2019;Merrill et al, 2020;Rigney, 2018), this article examines if the massive size and transnational nature of the 2003 anti-war protests resulted in a comparably widely shared and transnational memory. Following research that describes the crucial role of visual communication for movements and memory, it approaches this question by studying the size and shape of the online visual memory of the 2003 anti-war protests.…”

When a Social Movement Quarantines: The Power of Urban Memory in the 2019 Chilean Anti-neoliberal Uprising

“…In this line of argumentation, some authors have underlined the role of urban memory, built into social interactions through space for the strength, legitimacy, and collective identity of social movements (Daphi, 2017b; Daphi & Zamponi, 2019). This urban memory contributes to the recuperation and recreation of past practices, symbols, and discourses by supporting the goals of collective action (Daphi, 2017b; Spencer, 2016), as well as the strengthening of the movement, its identity, and its demands in the present (Badilla Rajevic, 2019; Daphi & Zamponi, 2019). In this sense, urban memory can update and revive the imaginary and projects of a social movement, as well as its impact on the city (Spencer, 2016).…”

A network of photographs: The visual public memory of the Dutch Provo movement, 1967–2016

“…. In the last 2 years, scholars from both fields attempted to reconcile these approaches in a "memory-activism nexus" (Rigney, 2018), a "movement-memory nexus" (Daphi and Zamponi, 2019), or a "movement-memory interface" (Merrill et al, 2020). They describe the nexus as consisting of roughly the same three elements: memory activism, the struggle to steer future remembrance, memory in activism, which describes how the memory of earlier movements shapes the tactics and demands of movements in the present, and memory of activism, which deals with how movements are remembered.…”