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Social Theory: Collective Memory

Social Theory: Collective Memory. Bin Xu Assistant Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies Florida International University. Barry Schwartz and the Cultural System Theory of Collective Memory. Politics of Memory versus Cultural System Empirical Cases Reception of Collective Memory

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Social Theory: Collective Memory

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  1. Social Theory: Collective Memory Bin Xu Assistant Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies Florida International University

  2. Barry Schwartz and the Cultural System Theory of Collective Memory • Politics of Memory versus Cultural System • Empirical Cases • Reception of Collective Memory • Post-heroic Era

  3. Politics of memory versus Cultural System • Critiques of the politics of memory approach: only causes and consequences • The past as a model of and a model for the society: • Model of: reflecting the present • Model for: a template and a frame (Memory as a social framecompared to Halbwachs’s “social frameworks of memory”) • Why some models but not others?

  4. Exemplary Case: Lincoln in WWII • Functions of collective memory: • Legitimation • Orientation • Clarification • Inspiration • Consolation

  5. Problems with the Cultural System Approach • The whole theory is based on the assumption of a homogeneous moral order based on a set of shared moral virtues. • The past is already a “sacred past”

  6. The Post-Heroic Era • The five Lincolns (p.116) • Savior of the Union • The great emancipator • Man of the people • The first American • The self-made man

  7. The Post-Heroic Era

  8. The Post-Heroic Era

  9. The Post-Heroic Era

  10. The Post-Heroic Era Declining reputation: racist or emancipator? Benign Ridicule

  11. Benign Ridicule

  12. Post-Heroic Era • “No feeling of having descended from a higher state of political morality, no nostalgic yearning for a sublime period in which great men walked the earth, no belief in, let alone effort to restore, earlier periods of epic heroism defines it. In this generation the very notion of greatness has eroded.” (p.187)

  13. Post-Heroic Era • Fading of great men/greatness • Respecting individuals, diversity, victimhood, etc. • Lincoln’s decline is part of a larger cultural pattern that involves: • New openness and acceptance of all peoples, regardless of social characteristics • Deterioration and coarsening of traditional symbols and practices (p.190)

  14. Questions • Is Barry Schwartz nostalgic? • “Acid of equality?” • Do we need a great man today?

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