Publication
Title
Forgetting and remembering in the margins: constructing past and future in the Romanian Danube Delta
Author
Abstract
This article investigates the process of social forgetting by relating it to the disintegration of social and spatial networks. Looking at the case of Sulina, a small town on the eastern edge of the Romanian Danube Delta, we analyze how the unraveling of networks caused a process of social forgetting with margin-specific features, a fundamental restructuring of social memory and social identities. An important focus of our investigation is the connection between social memory and spatial planning, as a coordinated effort to look forwards. While forgetting as such is seen as a positive process, constitutive of memory, its local characteristics can create problems, for example, for cooperation and planning. Theoretically, this article adopts a systems theoretical framework, incorporating notions derived from anthropology and geography. Social memory is defined as a continuous process of selection, carried out in various specialized subsystems. Concepts of social identity and network are found to be essential in a localized analysis of social memory. Concluding, we argue that local characteristics of social memory can impede the articulation of viable spatial planning strategies
Language
English
Source (journal)
Memory studies. - Los Angeles, 2008, currens
Publication
Los Angeles : Sage , 2009
ISSN
1750-6980
DOI
10.1177/1750698008102053
Volume/pages
2 :2 (2009) , p. 211-234
ISI
000208232100005
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 30.09.2009
Last edited 22.03.2023
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