Grassroots Memorials

Grassroots memorials have become major areas of focus during times of trauma, danger, and social unrest. These improvised memorial assemblages continue to display new and more dynamic ways of representing collective and individual identities and in doing so reveal the steps that shape the national memories of those who struggle to come to terms with traumatic loss. This volume focuses on the hybrid quality of these temporary memorials as both monuments of mourning and as focal points for protest and expression of discontent. The broad range of case studies in this volume include anti-mafia shrines, Theo van Gogh’s memorial, September 11th memorials, March 11th shrines in Madrid, and Carlo Giuliani memorials in Genoa.

Through case studies from Europe and Russia, this volume analyses memorials as a means for the present to make claims on the past in the aftermath of armed conflict. The central contention is that memorials are not backward-looking, inert reminders of past events, but instead active triggers of personal and shared emotion, that are inescapably political, bound up with how societies reconstruct their present and future as they negotiate their way out of (and sometimes back into) conflict. A central aim of the book is to highlight and illustrate the cultural and ethical complexity of memorials, as focal points for a tension between the notion of memory as truth, and the practice of memory as negotiable. By adopting a relatively bounded temporal and spatial scope, the volume seeks to move beyond the established focus on national traditions, to reveal cultural commonalities and shared influences in the memorial forms and practices of individual regions and of particular conflicts.

Memorials are more diverse in design and subject matter than ever before. No longer limited to statues of heroes placed high on pedestals, contemporary memorials engage visitors in new, often surprising ways, contributing to the liveliness of public space. In Memorials as Spaces of Engagement Quentin Stevens and Karen A. Franck explore how changes in memorial design and use have helped forge closer, richer relationships between commemorative sites and their visitors. The authors combine first hand analysis of key examples with material drawn from existing scholarship. Examples from the US, Canada, Australia and Europe include official, formally designed memorials and informal ones, those created by the public without official sanction. Memorials as Spaces of Engagement discusses important issues for the design, management and planning of memorials and public space in general. The book is organized around three topics: how the physical design of memorial objects and spaces has evolved since the 19th century; how people experience and understand memorials through the activities of commemorating, occupying and interpreting; and the issues memorials raise for management and planning. Memorials as Spaces of Engagement will be of interest to architects, landscape architects and artists; historians of art, architecture and culture; urban sociologists and geographers; planners, policymakers and memorial sponsors; and all those concerned with the design and use of public space.

′This volume of one of the most comprehensive in the field. Its three themes are critical for the study of culture and globalization with its condensation of space, time and memory. Exploring the intersection between these three processes, the essays are learned, deeply researched and insightful, and the comparative range is impressive. The volume is certain to become a standard reference text for scholars and the general reader alike′ - Professor Stuart Hall, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, The Open University Heritage, memory and identity are closely connected keywords of our time, each endowed with considerable rhetorical power. Different human groups define certain objects and practices as ′heritage′; they envision heritage to reflect some form of collective memory, either lived or imagined; and they combine both to construct cultural identities. Today, the three terms raise conjoined issues of practice, policy and politics in an increasingly globalized world. Bringing together a truly global range of scholars, this volume explores heritage, memory and identity through a diverse set of subjects, including heritage sites, practices of memorialization, museums, sites of contestation, and human rights.

A historically, spatially and methodologically rich sub-field of sociolinguistics, Linguistic Landscapes (LL) is a rapidly evolving area of research and study. With contributions by an international team of experts from the USA, Europe, the UK, South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong and Colombia, this volume is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary account of the most recent theoretical and empirical developments in this area. It covers both the conceptual tools and methodologies used to define and question, and case studies of real-world phenomena to showcase Linguistic Landscapes methods in action. Divided into four parts, chapters bring into dialogue themes relating to reterritorialization practices and the productive nature of boundaries and spaces. This book considers the contemporary challenges facing the field, the politics and processes of identifying and demarcating 'sites of research', and the ethics and pedagogical applications of LL research. With comprehensive lists of further reading, extended discussion questions and suggestions for independent research at the end of each chapter, this is an essential reference work for all LL scholars and students who wish to keep abreast of the current state of the art.

This book explores the border-transcending dimensions of public remembering by focussing on the triangular relationship between memory, monuments and migration. Framed by an introduction and conclusion, nine case studies located in diverse social and geo-political settings feature topical debates and contestation around monuments, statues and memorials erected by migrants or in memory of migrants, refugees and diasporas in host country societies. Written from different disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, art history, cultural studies and political science, the chapters consider displaced people as new, originally unintended audiences who bring transnational and transcultural perspectives to old monuments in host cities. In addition, migrants and diasporic communities are explored as ‘agents of memory’, who produce collective memory in tense environments of intra- and inter-group negotiation or outright hostility at the national and transnational level. The research is conceptually anchored in memory studies, notably transnational memory, multidirectional memory and other concepts emerging from memory studies’ recent ‘transcultural turn’.

This book explores the impact of September 11, 2001 upon interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy in the liberal arts. Since “the day that changed everything”, many forces have transformed institutions of higher education in the United States and around the world. The editors and contributors consider the extent to which the influence of 9/11 was direct, or part of wider structural changes within academia, and the chapters represent a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives on how the production and dissemination of knowledge has changed since 2001. Some authors demonstrate that new forms of inquiry, exploration, and evidence have been created, much of it focused on the causes, consequences, and meanings of the terror attacks. Others find that scholars sought to understand 9/11 by applying old theoretical and empirical insights and reviving lines of questioning that have become relevant. The contributors also examine the impact of 9/11 on higher education administration and liberal arts pedagogies. Among the many collective findings is that scholars in the humanities and critical social sciences have been most attentive to the place of 9/11 in society and academic culture. This eclectic collection will appeal to students and scholars interested in the place of the liberal arts in the twenty-first century world.

Unlike much of the literature on Venezuela in the Chávez period, this book shifts focus away from 'top down' perspectives to examine how Venezuelan folksinger Alí Primera (1942-1985) became intertwined with Venezuelan politics, both during his lifetime and posthumously. Alí’s ‘Necessary Songs’ offered cultural resources that enabled Chávez to connect with pre-existing patterns of grassroots activism in ways that resonated deeply with the poor and marginalised masses. Official support for Alí’s legacy led the songs to be used in new ways in the Chávez period, as Venezuelans actively engaged with them to redefine themselves in relation to the state and to reach new understandings of their place within a changed society. This book is essential reading not only for those interested in popular music and politics, but for all those seeking to better understand how Chávez was able to successfully identify himself so profoundly with the Venezuelan masses, and they with him.