EDITORIAL
parallel processes ( including those on other continents ), enables us to assert that memorial diversity should be a hallmark of public policies on memory at the transnational scale . Without ignoring or forgetting the heavy burden of the consequences of Nazism and Stalinism in terms of building democratic narratives , we also encounter other processes that have engendered transformative values that cannot be reduced to a second tier , such as the struggles waged against fascism and dictatorship , struggles for civil rights , processes of peace and justice , democratic movements against autocratic regimes , resistance movements and struggles for freedom .
This encapsulates one of the many aims of the European Observatory on Memories . Our goal is to seek forthrightly , without political pressures or aims , to address the complexity of our subject matter through a network of European memory , while also taking into account and respecting the diversity of memories , each with its own distinctive features . The challenges of our world and of our Europe grow ever more complex . However , as we have noted at the launch of our virtual exhibition and book on the seventieth anniversary of the Schuman Declaration , this is about “ a Europe full of hopes and possibilities that must never forget the people and the individual or collective processes that have fought for and shaped our free societies and our memory and democratic values of peace and social justice ”. This explains why it is so important to hold onto and expand a political and social Europe and to strengthen policies on memory and citizenship , as well as projects and places of memory . Time and again , such policies and places of memory are also policies and places of resistance , transgression and subalternity .
In the present issue of Observing Memories , we want to train a particular spotlight on the relationship between social media and memory . There is no mistaking the increasing importance of social media as channels of information and purveyors of new experiences of socialization , public mobilization , political debate , entertainment and more . They are also becoming increasingly significant transmitters of memories , new narratives about the past , and exciting discussions and conflicts that drive constant interaction among users . But which users generate the most influential messages ? How do these messages spread ? What kind of reception do they have ? What generates discussion ? There is no end to the questions that are worth striving to analyse through a plethora of case studies . The historian Matilde Eiroa and the telecommunications engineer Mariluz Congosto have shed light on the Twitter discussion threads and thousands of tweets generated in relation to the event that marked the memorial policy of 2019 in Spain : the exhumation of the dictator Francisco Franco and the removal of his remains from the Valley of the Fallen to his family mausoleum . In the context of the commemorations of Europe Day in 2020 , the historian Celeste Muñoz has taken a look at the polarization on Twitter between Eurosceptics and pro-Europeans , marked by discussions of “ Brexit ” and the current pandemic . Both cases – the exhumation of the Spanish dictator and the celebration of Europe Day – are products of the research project “ Online Memories ” sponsored by EUROM and built on the firm conviction that it is important to bring interdisciplinary , transnational work to the study of the transmission of memory . Speaking of transmission , however , we also have one of the world ’ s most authoritative , widely recognized and respected voices in “ memory studies ”: Marianne Hirsch . This issue features a fascinating interview with Hirsch on her career and the concepts that she has forged , taking a look at contemporary conflicts and debates ( from Black Lives Matter to today ’ s feminism ) and the role of memory in democratic societies .
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Observing Memories ISSUE 4