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SPS003


Remembering and forgetting the communist past in post-communist Europe: politics, social practices and everyday life 
Convenors:
Rigels Halili (Nicolaus Copernicus University)
Małgorzata Głowacka-Grajper (University of Warsaw)
Stream:
Socialist and post-socialist studies
Location:
A223
Sessions:
Tuesday 23 June, -, -, Wednesday 24 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Zagreb

Short Abstract:

The aim of this panel is to bring together researchers, who work on various socio-cultural and political aspects of the process of remembering and forgetting of the communist past in Europe. We intend to pose questions and analyse both the work of memory and work on memory.

Long Abstract:

Twenty five years after the memorable 1989 it seems obvious, that despite various path of post-communist transformation, the constant reference to the communist past, both in public and private spheres of life, remains a common trait.

The aim of this panel is to bring together researchers, who work on various socio-cultural and political aspects of the process of remembering and forgetting of the communist past in Europe. We intend to enrich the existing body of knowledge by relying on ethnographies of socio-political contexts of both work of memory and work on memory. We ask what is remembered of forgot from the communist past, but also how this process happens, for what reasons and to what purpose. We propose three main general fields of analysis:

a) politics, as the embodiment of aims, strategies and power relations;

b) social practices, i.e. commemorative intentions, ceremonies and rituals on various social levels and by different social groups,

c) everyday life, where the interplay between remembering and forgetting, both individually and communally, takes place and finds it expression.

Without setting any limits we encourage research on:

- local institutions, traditions and social mechanisms;

- interplay between memories on familial, local, social and national levels;

- historical policies and social actors;

- systems of education and commemoration;

- negotiation of official memory, and social actors involved in this process.

The conveners hope to be able to publish the outcome of the panel as a special number in a leading journal of social sciences.

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Tuesday 23 June, 2015, -