Commemoration as conflict: space, memory and identity in peace processes

In: Rethinking peace and conflict studies

Abstract

Commemoration as Conflict provides an exploration of how the various practices and processes of commemoration, which involve both intangible representations and tangible material forms, can contribute both to the success or failure of peace processes in societies attempting to make the transition from armed conflict to some form of political accommodation. It considers the difficulties faced by conflictual parties in a peace process in reconciling their partisan practices of commemoration and material landscapes of memorialisation, which are often aimed at enhancing ethnic or group solidarity and integrity and territoriality, with the more pluralist context of a peace process. In thinking about these issues it draws upon a range of examples including Israel/Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, the Basque Country and South Africa. In this unique book, McDowell and Braniff attempt to unpack the ways in which processes of memorialisation can influence efforts to bring armed conflict to an end and asks whether it can exacerbate or even reactivate conflict as political circumstances change.