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"Focusing on the memory of the German Democratic Republic, Towards a Collaborative Memory explores the cross-border collaborations of three German institutions. Using an innovative theoretical and methodological framework, drawing on relational sociology, network analysis and narrative, the study highlights the epistemic coloniality that has underpinned global partnerships across European actors and institutions. Sara Jones reconceptualizes transnational memory towards an approach that is collaborative not only in its practices, but also in its ethics, and shows how these institutions position themselves within dominant relationship cultures reflected between East and West, and North and South"--

The Media of Testimony explores testimony relating to the Stasi in different cultural forms: autobiographical writing, memorial museums and documentary film. Combining theoretical models from diverse disciplines, it presents a new approach to the study of testimony, memory and mediation.

In "The Media of Testimony", Sara Jones examines the use of eyewitness testimony in different cultural forms. The focus is on memories of the East German State Security Service (Stasi) in autobiographical writing, memorial museums and documentary film. Combining theoretical models from diverse disciplines, Jones develops a distinctive and interdisciplinary approach to testimony, memory and mediation. She considers the processes by which authors, directors and heritage managers seek to generate authority and authenticity for particular versions of contested histories. Contemporary uses of eyewitness testimony in popular history can extend communities of memory to include those with no direct experience of the represented past. However, this may result in a narrowing of history and a disinheritance of particular social groups. "The Media of Testimony" represents a significant contribution to studies of German cultural memory and to understanding the ways in which memories circulate and become salient in the media-dominated societies of the present

Cet article explore les collaborations transfrontalières de deux institutions allemandes dédiées à la mémoire des répressions communistes en combinant une analyse quantitative de réseaux et une analyse de discours. Il montre comment les réseaux créés par les deux institutions sont divisés en "régions de mémoire" et illustre la position structurellement influente des acteurs (ouest-)allemands. Dans leur engagement en Europe, ces institutions construisent une région "orientale" apparemment subalterne. Mais dans la coopération avec les militants du Moyen Orient et d'Afrique du Nord, elles se présentent comme les agents d'un code mémoriel progressiste "occidental" dont les partenaires non-européens devraient s'inspirer. Cela suggère que les coopérations transfrontalières peuvent être utilisées pour perpétuer des asymétries de pouvoir au sein du militantisme mémoriel global.

This article investigates the politics of representing everyday life (Alltag) in the German Democratic Republic in state-mandated museums and memorials in the contemporary Federal Republic. Through an analysis of advertising material, exhibits, and visitor surveys, it considers how managers of "auratic" sites have responded to the challenge posed by interpretations of the East German state that resist the focus on repression, as well as the impact of this response on different visitor groups. The discussion focuses on two established sites—Gedenkstätte Hohenschönhausen and Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstraße—as well as the exhibition in the Tränenpalast in Berlin, opened in September 2011. It argues that state-supported sites frequently seek to contain memories of Alltag by reinterpreting the term to mean the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people. Nonetheless, overly didactic interpretations that leave little space for individual meaning-making risk disinheriting those whose memories are based on social and economic security, rather than state violence. The article argues that there is a tension in these museums and memorials between a desire to present a singular view of the East German state as the second German dictatorship and the recognition that the "active visitor" brings his or her own experiences, interests and memories to public history sites.

Need for an international language, particularly in light of European integration; some focus on English vs. Esperanto.

This Palgrave Handbook examines the ways in which researchers and practitioners theorise, analyse, produce and make use of testimony. It explores the full range of testimony in the public sphere, including perpetrator testimony, testimony presented through social media and virtual reality. A growing body of research shows how complex and multi-layered testimony can be, how much this complexity adds to our understanding of our past, and how creators and users of testimony have their own complex purposes. These advances indicate that many of our existing assumptions about testimony and models for working with it need to be revisited. The purpose of this Palgrave Handbook is to do just that by bringing together a wide range of disciplinary, theoretical, methodological, and practice-based perspectives.