Memory Cultures and Globalisation

Memory cultures have long been a central interest of textbook analysis. History and Geography textbooks in particular have been analysed as media which play an important role in constituting, representing and transmitting cultural memories. To date, however, this research has largely centred on the nation state. The projects in the Memory Cultures and Globalisation research area focus explicitly on the reconfiguration of memory cultures within the contexts of globalisation. They suggest that research should turn to the relationship between globalisation and memory cultures for two reasons:

• First, globalisation seems to be accompanied by an intensification of processes of fragmentation. It is no coincidence that globalisation precipitated the collapse of multiethnic states. This in turn has led, especially in post-Soviet regions and the post-socialist Balkans, to the constitution or reconstitution of nation-states. In Africa and some regions of Asia, globalisation has contributed towards the escalation of conflict and social fragmentation. These diverse states are faced today with the challenge of reaching general agreement on how to interpret their past. This agreement is communicated to the next generation through, inter alia, the educational media used in schools. At the same time, reaching this sort of agreement entails the negotiation of memory cultures; negotiation conducted against a horizon of global relevancy spaces. The construction of master narratives in post-Soviet and post-socialist countries and their convergence with supranational identity constructions are regularly assessed by a range of transnational actors. Not only that, these new master narratives are also assessed for whether or not they enable their newly constituted national collectivities to meet the challenges of today’s globalising world.
• Second, projects which aim to construct collective identities though the constitution of cultural memories, wherever they are located, are facing increasing problems in the contexts of globalisation. State elites have always privileged certain memory narratives. But they have never managed to elevate their narratives – which they have institutionalised through educational media, museums and monuments – to the status of undisputed hegemony. State-sponsored interpretations of the past have always had to coexist or compete with the alternative narratives provided by various social groups. The concept of memory cultures focuses on precisely this coexistence of sometimes extremely contradictory and contested representations of the past. It draws our attention to the multiplicity of polyphonic voices flowing into the negotiation of what counts as a relevant memory and which (whose) meanings will be assigned to this memory. These negotiations have become increasingly dynamic in contexts of globalisation. Partly due to the expansion of networks of interdependencies in which individuals are embedded, it is also partly a result of the proliferation of knowledge production centres, each of which observes the others. Both of these forces impact on memory cultures. When individuals from an isolated region of the world migrate to one of the global metropolises, this has the potential – almost unavoidably – to radically transform their families’ perspective on the world, and hence also their sense of identity. The same applied to the ways in which media bring knowledge produced in diverse parts of the world to a broad and spatially distant audience. These are only two examples of how multiple and diverse perspectives flow into (national) negotiations of memory and identity.

With these considerations on the relationship between globalization and memory cultures as shared background, the current and future projects in this research group address a broad range of issues:

• Translating memory cultures into school practice
  Educational media claim the right to define what counts as a relevant memory culture in a given society. To be effective, however, these narratives or interpretations of memory culture must first be translated into classroom practice. This translation process gives teachers and students a certain amount of leeway to find creative forms of engagement. Precisely this creative space, and the ways it is utilised in diverse social contexts, then becomes a fascinating research topic which can be approached using methodological tools from the empirical social sciences.
  A project on the patterns of cultural interpretation in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Lithuania is currently comparing history teachers’ biographical memory narratives of socialism with representations of socialism in the history textbooks of these three countries.
  A further project intends to conduct a large-scale empirical study of students’ interpretations of key turning points in memory culture (1945, 1989 and 9/11) as presented in school textbooks and on the internet. It asks how students appropriate these moments into their own lives. Attending to the participants’ individual and social contexts, the empirical data on different media reception practices will first identify categories of media users. An experimental study will then analyse how these media users engage with the presentation of knowledge which is characteristic of (i) the textbook and (ii) the internet. The main aims are to verify whether interdependence effects between media user category and media type can be ascertained, and whether particular user categories benefit from working with a particular type of medium.

• Interdiscursive connections between textbook discourses and discourses in other educational media
  Media is one site of public discourse in which struggles over the power to define meanings are conducted. The rapid proliferation of these sites is undeniably changing the social status and function of textbook knowledge. Textbooks are only one educational medium among many others. The representations of reality provided by textbooks have to compete with rival interpretations. The research area reacts to this challenge by devising research projects which embed textbook analysis in broader analysis of the processes of knowledge production in other social arenas, e.g. the internet, museums, literature, films and television.
  A project is currently being developed which compares representations of the socialist past in textbooks and literature in the Balkan and the Baltic regions. The point of departure is the notion that while textbook narratives clearly articulate the memory culture preferences of the state elite, literature reflects the diversity of positions circulating in civil society. The regional focus results from a series of observations. Debates about memory culture have been particularly intense in both regions. Yet the circumstances leading to the establishment of socialism and the end of independence differ remarkably. Also, the Balkan and the Baltic states employed divergent strategies to legitimise socialism, with each drawing in different ways on nationalist patterns of argumentation.
• When concepts travel – Educational media as an echo chamber for transnational discourses
  The field of educational media is one site where the slow erosion of the sovereignty of nation-states can be observed. Future projects aim to explore whether supra- or transnational bodies play a role in deciding what is taught in state schools. At least two mechanisms have the potential to reduce the decision-making competence of nation-states. On the formal level, supranational institutions such as the EU or OCSE are increasingly claiming the right to have a say in educational policy issues. On the informal level, transnational discourses are gaining in importance and thus in their ability to influence decision-makers who are ostensibly aligned to the nation-state. A particularly striking example is the universalisation of Holocaust remembrance. Future projects in the globalisation research area intend to address both of these mechanisms of strengthening global interdependencies. Two types of project are planned.
  One project will investigate if and how the activities of the International Taskforce for Holocaust Education affect the contents of educational media and their translation into classroom practice in a select number of western and eastern European countries. A further project will explore the educational policies and activities of UNESCO and the Agha Khan Network in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The focus is on the local adoption and translation of these transnational bodies’ concepts of civic education. In both of these projects, the emphasis is on instances of concrete institutional support for global relevancy spaces. The pressing question is how the concepts provided by these institutions are used in diverse local arenas, and the consequences of their adoption/adaptation.
  A different type of project turns its attention to global selection horizons as potential bearers of, and champions for, global relevancy spaces. This entails analysing how 1989 is represented as a global event in educational media in eastern and western Europe and in non-European societies. The aim is to trace the movement of narratives among diverse local spaces of communication.

Projects

Barbara Christophe: Patterns of Cultural Interpretation of Socialism: History Teachers as Mediators Between Collective and Individual Memory in Georgia,  Kyrgyzstan and Lithuania (funded by Stiftung Volkswagenwerk)

• Maja Razmadze
• Damira Umetbaeva