Collective memory between stability and change

Abstract

This commentary examines the relationship between stability and change within collective memory, a topic inspired by Nicholson’s paper on the Israeli–Palestinian protracted conflict and Awad’s paper on the use of symbols during the Egyptian revolution. Starting from a basic working definition of this concept as designating our relation, as individuals and communities, to the collective past, the commentary proposes a multi-layer model of collective memory including macro or societal (collective representations, ideologies), meso or group (social representations, narratives), and micro or individual/inter-personal processes (remembering, meaning-making). Instead of a more classic unidirectional model that portrays change as always beginning from the micro level and stability as attached mostly to the macro level of analysis, a bidirectional model is advanced in which stability and change take place at once and often as a consequence of the same processes, independent of their level. In the end, an argument is put forward regarding the theoretical and practical importance of considering not only ‘what’ but also ‘who’ performs collective memory.