Remembering Activism: Explorations in the Memory-Activism Nexus

Special Issue of Memory Studies.

We are happy to announce the publication Remembering Activism: Explorations in the memory-activism nexus, the October 2024 special issue of the SAGE Memory Studies Journal (17:5).

The special issue contains an editorial, twelve research articles and a closing commentary from an interdisciplinary team of authors that together present an array of case studies. These cover contemporary and historical activist causes from across the political spectrum (from climate rebels to anti-vaxxers) and with ties to different communities (from diaspora groups to occupiers) and different generations (from 68 student protestors to those of Gen Z). The special issue also reveals the influence that several other actors besides activists have within the memory-activism nexus. Whether these be police or security agencies, market actors, cultural forms and media affordances, or the algorithms that influence the workings of social media platforms and databases, it is clear that activist memory work operates in a complex field of different forces.

The special issue includes contributions (all Open Access) by several Utrecht scholars: Tashina Blom, Duygu Erbil, Ann Rigney, Daniele Salerno, and Sophie van den Elzen.

To read the special issue visit: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/MSS/current.

The special issue was co-edited by Samuel Merrill and Ann Rigney as part of a collaboration between the ERC-funded ReAct Project at Utrecht University (www.rememberingactivism.eu) and Umeå University’s Department of Sociology and Centre for Digital Social Research (https://www.digsum.org/).