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                Call for Papers: POEM Opening Conference
<br>
<br>
<br>Participatory Memory Practices: Connectivities, Empowerment, and Recognition
<br>of Cultural Heritages in Mediatized Memory Ecologies
<br>
<br>
<br>Date: 13.-14.12.2018
<br>
<br>Place: Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg / Germany
<br>
<br>
<br>Proposal Deadline: 15.09.2018
<br>
<br>
<br>(pdf-version:
<br>https://www.poem.uni-hamburg.de/en/_pdf/2018-06-12-cfp-poem-opening-conferenc
<br>e.pdf)
<br>
<br>
<br>Diverging forces across European societies - most visible in both the
<br>contemporary nationalist movements and Islamist radicalization - place
<br>particular relevance on social and cultural inclusion. Culture may cultivate
<br>both integrative and disruptive forces; in this light heritage experts, policy
<br>makers, social entrepreneurs, and other facilitators are seeking to establish
<br>inclusive memory politics for envisioning possible futures of how we should
<br>remember our past in Europe. The recognition of difficult and dissonant
<br>traditions and the contestation of public memory in respect to the
<br>representation of colonial traditions and immigration, multiculturalism and
<br>transnational history, non-Christian religious heritages in European
<br>societies, female heritages, or the inclusion of deprived groups are important
<br>issues in this debate. Being part of the public memory is crucial for
<br>envisioning positive futures, acknowledging peoples and groups history,
<br>identity, belonging, and membership. Furthermore, questions of eligibility
<br>play an important role in relation to public support or redemption, for
<br>partaking in economic outcomes, or in relation to questions on ownership of
<br>cultural heritage resources.
<br>
<br>
<br>Participatory memory work (PMW) is a framework for examining the strategies
<br>and practices of public memory institutions - libraries, archives, and museums
<br>- as well as of individuals and groups in their everyday life. PMW means the
<br>inclusion of diverse memories across social situations (gender, socio-economic
<br>status, education, migration, etc.) into public memory work. It means to
<br>acknowledge these diverse memories as a significant part of the history, the
<br>heritage, and the contemporary life in Europe. Aiming for a socially inclusive
<br>public memory, concepts of European cultural citizenship are increasingly
<br>debated and experimented widely with participatory approaches in public memory
<br>institutions. At the same time, new memory ecologies have emerged with
<br>networked media infrastructures and their extensive uses, in mediatized,
<br>globally connected societies. The Internet and social media are natural
<br>parts of self-representation, marketing, or audience communication of public
<br>memory institutions; large scale digital heritage initiatives demarcate the
<br>transformation activities towards digital cultural production.
<br>
<br>
<br>However, the participatory turn in memory work, essential for a socially
<br>inclusive public memory, turns out to be not as easy to implement in practice.
<br>Aside from the established memory institutions, people and groups explore
<br>Internet platforms for commemoration and sharing personal texts, photos, or
<br>videos and collaboratively contribute to an emergence of open access
<br>archives of everyday life. The diverse platforms, e.g. YouTube, Facebook,
<br>Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., broadly attract people and groups for
<br>contributing cultural materials, articulating their views of history/histories
<br>and enfolding personal and group-related memory practices. Even though they
<br>are public, these Internet archives are beyond the scope of public memory
<br>politics and institutions; they are run for economic purposes in private
<br>ownership. The accessibility of these archives is regulated by business
<br>models and remains unclear towards the future. Connecting personal and
<br>group-related memory work in the public to participatory memory politics is
<br>thus confronted with legal and economic obstacles, ethical issues, as well as
<br>with discontinuities and gaps of individual and institutional social practices
<br>of memory work. This highlights the changed technical, organizational, and
<br>legal modalities of doing participatory memory work for social inclusive
<br>memory politics.
<br>
<br>
<br>The call invites contributions on how the various developments in memory work
<br>can be brought together for facilitating participatory memory practices. How
<br>do memory practices of stakeholders overlap? Which connectivities can be built
<br>across individual and institutional practices of memory work? How do media
<br>matter for connecting different memory practices across people and groups as
<br>well as institutions? How can empowerment become an integral factor in public
<br>memory work? What modes of recognition and inclusion are adequate? How can
<br>they be organised to develop their full potential for envisioning European
<br>futures? How does this affect the making and unmaking of heritage? What
<br>competences do people and groups need for making their particular traditions
<br>relevant in the public memory? How can private and shared memories of a group
<br>on the Internet be collected and integrated in public memory institutions?
<br>
<br>
<br>The conference addresses a multidisciplinary and international group of
<br>scholars and experts from memory institutions, civil society, policy makers,
<br>social entrepreneurs, the coding community, and creative industries.
<br>
<br>
<br>Proposals should not exceed a length of 600 words and include bios of max. 200
<br>words. Please send your proposal until September 15th 2018 to
<br>poem.gwiss@uni-hamburg.de.
<br>
<br>
<br>POEM has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and
<br>innovation programme under grant agreement No 764859.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>---
<br>
<br>University of Hamburg
<br>
<br>POEM H2020 project
<br>
<br>Prof. Dr. Gertraud Koch (POEM Coordinator)
<br>
<br>c/o Institute of European Ethnology/Cultural Anthropology
<br>
<br>Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 | 20146 Hamburg | Germany
<br>
<br>
<br>phone: +49 (0)40 42838-6515
<br>
<br>mail: poem.gwiss@uni-hamburg.de
<br>
<br>web: https://www.poem.uni-hamburg.de/
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