Local memories in a nationalizing and globalizing world

Abstract

"In historical studies, 'collective memory' is most often viewed as the product of nationalizing strategies carried out by political elites in the hope to create homogeneous nation-states. In contrast, this book asserts that collective memories develop out of a never-ending, triangular negotiation between local, national and transnational actors. Within this negotiation process, the authors focus on the important contribution of processes occurring at a local level. These can either generate entirely new memories, or bestow nationally forged sites of memory with innovative, sometimes subversive meanings. As many cases in this book attest, local memories can be at the same time eminently transnational: they can reflect the concrete--more or less harmonious--co-existence of several groups on the same territory, or the willingness to bring about reconciliation between nations at a site of common mourning"--