Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DisTerrMem (Memory Across Borders: Dealing with the Legacy of Disputed Territories)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-02-01 do 2024-01-31
DisTerrMem (Memory Across Borders) brought together an international and interdisciplinary team to explore how competing memories of disputed territories can be best managed. Working across three key regions - Eastern Europe, South Asia and the South Caucasus - the seven partners from Poland, Armenia, Lithuania, the UK and Pakistan explored the roles of four key actors - civil society, cultural practitioners, nation states and regional organisations - in managing such memories.
Over the last decades, cosmopolitan approaches advocating 'shared' narratives in areas of longstanding conflicts have often failed since a consensus about disputed territories has proven too difficult to achieve. In recent years, civil society groups have increasingly challenged dominant representations of the national community, seeking to establish multiple stories and alternative commemorative practices.
DisTerrMem examined how adopting an agonistic approach to memory provides new opportunities for managing competing memories in non-conflictual ways. It brought together interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral expertise to move the debate beyond the European frame to develop an alternative theoretical and methodological framework to antagonism, identify examples of agonistic memory management and promote examples of best practice at multiple levels, sharing these with policymakers, civil society organizations and cultural practitioners in range of contexts.
The project’s key objectives were the following:
a. Strengthen and enhance the cooperation and knowledge sharing within the research partnership, through the development of a programme of knowledge exchange activities;
b. Bring together complementary expertise and knowledge through international mobility, in order to boost research capacity among participating organisations, progressing understanding of mechanisms for the management of competing memories of disputed territories;
c. Improve the skillsets and career opportunities of participating staff members;
d. Enhance partners’ awareness of the research cultures in different countries and different sectors;
e. Develop a portfolio of impact activities, to disseminate methods, to facilitate the collaborative creation of theoretically and methodologically innovative research outputs, and make these widely available for a range of relevant audiences.
Over the last decades, cosmopolitan approaches advocating 'shared' narratives in areas of longstanding conflicts have often failed since a consensus about disputed territories has proven too difficult to achieve. In recent years, civil society groups have increasingly challenged dominant representations of the national community, seeking to establish multiple stories and alternative commemorative practices.
DisTerrMem examined how adopting an agonistic approach to memory provides new opportunities for managing competing memories in non-conflictual ways. It brought together interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral expertise to move the debate beyond the European frame to develop an alternative theoretical and methodological framework to antagonism, identify examples of agonistic memory management and promote examples of best practice at multiple levels, sharing these with policymakers, civil society organizations and cultural practitioners in range of contexts.
The project’s key objectives were the following:
a. Strengthen and enhance the cooperation and knowledge sharing within the research partnership, through the development of a programme of knowledge exchange activities;
b. Bring together complementary expertise and knowledge through international mobility, in order to boost research capacity among participating organisations, progressing understanding of mechanisms for the management of competing memories of disputed territories;
c. Improve the skillsets and career opportunities of participating staff members;
d. Enhance partners’ awareness of the research cultures in different countries and different sectors;
e. Develop a portfolio of impact activities, to disseminate methods, to facilitate the collaborative creation of theoretically and methodologically innovative research outputs, and make these widely available for a range of relevant audiences.
Over the course of the DisTerrMem project (February 2019-January 2024), substantial progress was made, and significant results were achieved including:
- Setting up an international network of academics and practitioner and cementing this through several staff exchanges.
- Development of a critical understanding of the agonistic memory framework and its potential for peace keeping across geographical, sector and disciplinary boundaries, captured in a state-of-the-art literature review.
- Holding two internal conferences and a final international conference to progress and disseminate the project’s work and facilitate knowledge sharing. This resulted in the development of an innovative theoretical and methodological framework applying the principles of agonism to promote a better management of competing memories.
- The project’s two summer schools offered training for confirmed and early career researchers in research methods aligned with the agonistic approach and disseminated best practices shared by project participants from academia, civil society and cultural practice.
-The project’s final conference involved academics and non-academic stakeholders in person and via Zoom. All sessions have been recorded and made available via the Project
- The project website, social media activity and two stakeholder engagement workshops helped sharing project results with partners, stakeholders, other relevant projects, policy makers, practitioners, NGOs, heritage professionals and artists.
- Eight Case Studies were developed, exploring the use of an agonistic approach to memory in different contexts, comparing the challenges and promises of this perspective in different countries. These were written up as book chapters in a collective book titled Pathways to Agonism: Theoretical and Practical Approaches to the Memories of Disputed Territories and edited by Dr Christina Horvath (University of Bath) and Dr Tomasz Rawski (University of Warsaw). The full manuscript was submitted to the publisher in February 2024.
- Two sets of practical recommendations have been produced to promote the use of the agonistic memory framework. These have been shared with policymakers and practitioners via the project website and mailing list.
The involvement of young researchers in the programme whose careers have greatly benefitted from the wider understandings and skills that they have acquired through these exchange.
- Setting up an international network of academics and practitioner and cementing this through several staff exchanges.
- Development of a critical understanding of the agonistic memory framework and its potential for peace keeping across geographical, sector and disciplinary boundaries, captured in a state-of-the-art literature review.
- Holding two internal conferences and a final international conference to progress and disseminate the project’s work and facilitate knowledge sharing. This resulted in the development of an innovative theoretical and methodological framework applying the principles of agonism to promote a better management of competing memories.
- The project’s two summer schools offered training for confirmed and early career researchers in research methods aligned with the agonistic approach and disseminated best practices shared by project participants from academia, civil society and cultural practice.
-The project’s final conference involved academics and non-academic stakeholders in person and via Zoom. All sessions have been recorded and made available via the Project
- The project website, social media activity and two stakeholder engagement workshops helped sharing project results with partners, stakeholders, other relevant projects, policy makers, practitioners, NGOs, heritage professionals and artists.
- Eight Case Studies were developed, exploring the use of an agonistic approach to memory in different contexts, comparing the challenges and promises of this perspective in different countries. These were written up as book chapters in a collective book titled Pathways to Agonism: Theoretical and Practical Approaches to the Memories of Disputed Territories and edited by Dr Christina Horvath (University of Bath) and Dr Tomasz Rawski (University of Warsaw). The full manuscript was submitted to the publisher in February 2024.
- Two sets of practical recommendations have been produced to promote the use of the agonistic memory framework. These have been shared with policymakers and practitioners via the project website and mailing list.
The involvement of young researchers in the programme whose careers have greatly benefitted from the wider understandings and skills that they have acquired through these exchange.
The project achieved progress beyond the state of the art by bringing together researchers and practitioners from three key regions (Europe, South Asia and the South Caucasus) to jointly reach new understandings of and interventions in managing competing memories. It developed interdisciplinary critical understandings of the possibilities and limitations of the agonistic framework in addressing the memories of disputed territories.
It built a memory management framework and greater understandings of how this can be employed to promote peacekeeping in a variety of contexts.
The project’s key findings were the following:
1. Antagonistic memory, and the polarising narratives of ‘us’ and ‘them’, dominate narratives of national unity.
2. Cosmopolitan memory produces over-rationalised narratives which leave space for the rise of populist nationalist and far right movements to remain unchallenged.
3. As an alternative, the agonistic mode of remembering aims to help communities develop a critical understanding of conflict and embrace mutual empathy to overcome potentially destructive antagonistic relations between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
4. DisTerrMem explored the potential for agonistic memory in peacekeeping and found that although the principles of agonism were difficult to translate into practice, in particular during or immediately after armed conflicts, it had the potential to help strengthen democracy and build resilience in the longer term.
5. While examples of pure agonistic practices remained rare, combinations of cosmopolitan and agonistic memory resulted in more complex, inclusive memory practices based on empathy, dissensus, and self-reflection.
The project disseminated these results to a variety of audiences including through policy briefings, the website, case study reports articles in journals, and a collectively edited book. It also empowered civil society actors, cultural practitioners, nation states and regional organizations to develop non-antagonistic versions of memory to promote the cessation of armed conflicts. Further impact included an increase in the skills and knowledge of participants as a result of the project activities and the creation of an international network which will be sustained during the rest of the project and built on by future collaborations and exchanges once the project has ended.
It built a memory management framework and greater understandings of how this can be employed to promote peacekeeping in a variety of contexts.
The project’s key findings were the following:
1. Antagonistic memory, and the polarising narratives of ‘us’ and ‘them’, dominate narratives of national unity.
2. Cosmopolitan memory produces over-rationalised narratives which leave space for the rise of populist nationalist and far right movements to remain unchallenged.
3. As an alternative, the agonistic mode of remembering aims to help communities develop a critical understanding of conflict and embrace mutual empathy to overcome potentially destructive antagonistic relations between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
4. DisTerrMem explored the potential for agonistic memory in peacekeeping and found that although the principles of agonism were difficult to translate into practice, in particular during or immediately after armed conflicts, it had the potential to help strengthen democracy and build resilience in the longer term.
5. While examples of pure agonistic practices remained rare, combinations of cosmopolitan and agonistic memory resulted in more complex, inclusive memory practices based on empathy, dissensus, and self-reflection.
The project disseminated these results to a variety of audiences including through policy briefings, the website, case study reports articles in journals, and a collectively edited book. It also empowered civil society actors, cultural practitioners, nation states and regional organizations to develop non-antagonistic versions of memory to promote the cessation of armed conflicts. Further impact included an increase in the skills and knowledge of participants as a result of the project activities and the creation of an international network which will be sustained during the rest of the project and built on by future collaborations and exchanges once the project has ended.