Short Abstract:

This panel explores ways of approaching local memory narratives that are untold in or different from the official frames of remembering. It discusses methodological and ethical dilemmas connected to fieldwork-based research on social memory as well as issues related to researchers’ positionality.

Long Abstract:

There comes a time in the process of memory construction when local memory is structured into cultural-mythical patterns. Conversely, the diversity of personal stories is overshadowed by a canon of official collective memory. However, the question arises: does this really apply to all local memory? Are there narratives at the micro level of remembering that differ from the narratives of official memory politics, and if so, how to explore these? Do we encounter features of memory that are incompatible with the historical and social science theories that have so far analysed social remembering? While personal and local meanings of memory can be explored in detail through ethnographic fieldwork, there are several issues involved. Some of these are: To what extent can fieldwork help us to identify stories which are different from the official frames of remembering and/or that have not yet been told or written in the social arena? How to overcome the mistrust that may be directed towards researchers from the “outside” who are curious about narratives other than the official ones? What is the position of “insider” researchers in a fieldwork exploring unwritten micro-level histories in “their” community? How much of the untold stories can researchers share with the social and scientific public? For this panel, we invite papers that address the above questions and dilemmas concerning local memory. The speakers of the panel will also have the opportunity to share with each other and the audience the methodological and ethical issues of their research.

This Panel has so far received 4 paper proposal(s).
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