Collective Memory Narratives in Contemporary Culture

Starting from the central importance of memory in contemporary societies, this book encourages a transdisciplinary reflection on how the presentification of the past is never a simple reenactment but corresponds to the interaction between memory and cultural sensitiveness, present beliefs and needs, expectations, and forecasts for the future. It studies cultural (re)construction through collective stories, including academic debates, media narratives, collective mobilizations, state narratives of history, architectural reconstructions, and artistic expressions. It looks at how technological innovations have profoundly changed the practices of conservation and dissemination of collective memory, with particular reference to cultural digitization. Finally, it shows that the relevance and selection of events, the organization of connections and cross-references between past, present, and future, as well as the importance of diversified collective imaginaries are the keys to narrative constructions of memory that prove to be sensitive and decisive for its continuity and its intergenerational transmission. This interdisciplinary collection is for students and scholars of the social sciences, cultural studies, and the humanities interested in memory studies.

Considers collective memory as a powerful tool in understanding a society's present and future Integrates sociological perspectives with those of other social sciences Provides a unique perspective in examining the relationship between memory and related narratives

Auteur

Antonella Pocecco is a researcher at the Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Social Studies, University of Udine, where she teaches Sociology of Mass Communications and Intercultural Communication. She is the coordinator the MECOME (Collective Memory and Media) research group and co-founder member of the international research group Narratives and Social Changes. Her latest publications include: (with M. Pascoli), Visitare il passato. Il turismo della memoria della Grande guerra nel Friuli Venezia Giulia (FrancoAngeli, 2021); "I media nella costruzione della memoria: la pluralizzazione del ricordo", Metis - M ,. XXVIII, 2021, 1; "Transnationalism and Universalism of the Memory Tourism of the Great War", Journal of Mediterranean Knowledge-JMK, 5, 2020, 1; (ed.), Memorie del presente. Luoghi, oggetti e culture della società globale (FrancoAngeli, 2019). Estrella Gualda is a Full Professor of Sociology, a Full Member of the Academia Iberoamericana de La Rábida, and past President of the Andalusian Sociological Association (2018-2022). She develops her work at the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Public Health, University of Huelva, Spain, where she also is the Director of the Social Studies and Social Intervention Research Centre since 2001. She is a member of the COIDESO Research Centre at the University of Huelva and a co-founder member of the international research group Narratives & Social Changes - International Research Group, an Associate Researcher of the International Lab for Innovative Social Research, and a founder member of the Applied Computational Social Sciences Lab, at the University of Huelva. Recent publications are: "Big data y ciencias sociales: Una mirada comparativa a las publicaciones de antropología, sociología y trabajo social" (Gazeta de antropología, 2023); "Social big data, sociología y ciencias sociales computacionales" (Empiria, 2022); "National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic" (Nature Communications, 2022, coauthor); "Conspiracy Mentality and Political Orientation across 26 countries" (Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, coauthor).

Emiliana Mangone is Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Department of Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno (Italy). She is Director of the Narratives and Social Changes-International Research Group (NaSC-IRG, 2020-2026) and she was Director of the International Centre for Studies and Research on "Mediterranean Knowledge" (2015-2020). Her main investigative interests are in the field of cultural and institutional systems, with particular attention to the social representations, relational processes, knowledge, and narrative as key elements to the human act, in migration studies, and as well as the study pf the thought of Pitirim A. Sorokin. She recently published: Pitirim A. Sorokin. Rediscovering a Master of Sociology (Vernon Press, 2023); Narratives and Social Change. Social Reality in Contemporary Society (Springer, 2022); Solidarietà sociale (Mondadori, 2022); Beyond the Dichotomy Between Altruism and Egoism. Society, Relationship and Responsibility (Information Age Publishing, 2020).

Contenu

The Reasons Why the Narrative of Memory and not Storytelling. Reconstructing Past, Present and Future.- Building the Future: Transcultural and Transnational Dimensions of the Narratives of the Past.- Diversity of Collective Memories and Identification Processes on Monuments: The Case Study of Columbus Monument in Huelva (Spain).- Is Nostalgia Dangerous? Post-Soviet Nostalgia in the Memory of the Soviet Times and the Fluctuations of the Social Order.- Labor Memories: Distant Reading Exercises.- European Memory and Identity During the Refugee Crisis.- Bodies on the Border: Sports Stories and Memories of Istrian and Dalmatian Exiles Narratives and Social Reality.- Narratives of Memory on Twitter: the case of the Día de la Lealtad in Argentina.- The Movimiento 19 de abril (Colombia) and the Reconstruction of Public Memory between Narrative and Counter-narrative.- The symbol as a memory. The transcendence in the religious narrative of the book of Job.- The memory of art or the art of memory: the roles of art in the reconversion of industrial sites.- Knowledge of the History of Latin American Philosophical and Political Thought in Political Culture of the New Generations.- The Narratives about the Two Sides of Wars: New Technologies Entangled by Antiquity.