Memory in Times of Crisis: Argentina, Spain and Greece, 1998 to now

Project Information

MeTC

Grant agreement ID: 101108725

DOI

10.3030/101108725

Project closed

EC signature date 17 April 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 206 887,68

Coordinated by

LINNEUNIVERSITETET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MeTC (Memory in Times of Crisis: Argentina, Spain and Greece, 1998 to now)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project aimed at opening an international discussion on how people (re)see the Recent Past in networked societies in times of economic recession exploring how economic crises affect(ed) the ways in which societies remember/forget the recent past and how societies in crisis discuss (memories of) the recent past using social media drawing on Facebook, Instagram, and forums, three social media appropriate for microhistorical and sociological analysis. It focused on three historically and sociologically comparable societies that experienced crises between 1998 and now: Argentina, Spain. and Greece. The project aimed to explore interplays between memory and cultures of connectivity, and to offer an adaptable methodological model for exploring memory politics through Digital Ethnography and Oral History. Moreover, it aimed, to comparatively analyse the relations between crises and memory of the recent past. The project explored how subjects of different ages, genders, classes, educational backgrounds, and political positions engage with crises and how their methods affect(ed) the politics of online remembrance and forgetting.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project collected data in social media in Argentina, Spain, and Greece. It also gathered twenty-two interviews from people engaged in the production of discourses on the past during the economic crises from 1998 to the present (people organizing/ participating in nostalgic groups on Facebook, Instagram etc. and in other memory-related activities, such as nostalgic museums, shops using social media, etc.). The interviews were taken in two research trips in Madrid and Buenos Aires and a short research stay in Athens. The methodologies employed included invisible digital observation, oral interviewing, and mixed methods (hybrid memory methods). Research outcomes have been analysed through multiple and mixed methods (historicized content analysis/ intermedial and multimodal analysis/ intertextual and intervisual analysis) and have been presented in eight international conferences and workshops, some of them by leading international associations (e.g. Memory Studies Association; International Society for Media and History) and peer-reviewed publications in leading journals (five published/accepted, two under review, two under preparation). The project organized a two-day hybrid international and interdisciplinary workshop on “Memory in times of crisis” in June 2025 with the participation of two leading scholars in memory studies as keynote speakers (professors Wulf Kansteiner and Dagmar Brunow) and fourteen researchers from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. A collective publication is under consideration.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project aimed to explore interplays between memory and cultures of connectivity, and to offer an adaptable methodological model for exploring memory politics through Digital Ethnography and Oral History. Moreover, it aimed, to comparatively analyse the relations between crises and memory of the recent past. The project explored how subjects of different ages, genders, classes, educational backgrounds, and political positions engage with crises and how their methods affect(ed) the politics of online remembrance and forgetting.
The project collected data from social media in the three countries explored and 22 interviews from people engaged in mnemonic nostalgic activities. It used the two methods (digital ethnography and oral history) to collect and analyze material. The material has been analyzed according to the methods proposed (intermedial and multimodal analysis and historicized intertextual and intervisual analysis). Results have been presented in conference presentations and peer-reviewed articles in leading journals and peer-reviewed volumes. These results are outlined below:

Research articles
1) Zestanakis P (2026; forthcoming) Nostalgic podcasts, a new historical source. Journal of Modern Greek Studies 44:1 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Q2, SJR: 0.144 H-Index: 18)
2) Zestanakis P (2025; forthcoming) Nostalgia and cultural creativity: The case of contemporary Athens. European Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage, Q1, SJR: 1.010; H-Index: 62)
3) Zestanakis P (2025) Nostalgic nation: Simplicity, togetherness, and the senses in contemporary Greece. National Identities 27(4): 413–435. (Taylor and Francis, Q1, SJR 0.364 H-Index 26) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14608944.2024.2448953?src=
4) Zestanakis P (2024) Nostalgia as critique to Europe: reflections from contemporary Greece. European Review 32(5–6): 539–555. (Cambridge University Press, Q3, SJR 0.181 H- Index 37 Academia Europea) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/nostalgia-as- a-critique-of-europe- reflections-from-contemporary- greece/44103930EAFCFFA5396C10DB4E3AC838
5) Zestanakis P (2024) On 80stalgia: discernments from contemporary Greece. Journal for Cultural Research 28(4): 315–332 (Taylor and Francis, Q1, SJR: 0.367 H-Index: 25) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2024.2358533 https://philpapers.org/versions/ZESOSD

Book chapters
1) Zestanakis P (2026) Ηybrid memory and nostalgia for a provocative past: The Facebook group of the Ombre rock club. In Ekelund R, Gudmundsdóttir G, Merrill S and Sindbæk–Andersen T (Eds), Digital Memory Studies and Beyond. Exploring Contemporary Mnemonic Practices from a Hybrid Perspective. Leiden: Brill.
2) Zestanakis P (2026) The “funny Change”: Humor and (politicized) nostalgia on the Greek 1980s. In Chairetis S and Hoefel D (επιμ.) Humour and its Political Affordances Today. Leiden: Brill.