Collective Remembering

Derek Edwards is Reader in Discursive Psychology in the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University. He is co-author (with Neil Mercer) of Common Knowledge, (with Jonathan Potter) of Discursive Psychology and (with others) of Ideological Dilemmas.

`The study of memory, as a social and political phenomenon, is one of the most exciting areas of current work... This collection of essays makes a useful addition to the literature′ - The Sociological Review`When carrying out fieldwork, stress is laid on the obtaining and checking of information. This golden rule can be readily appreciated against the background of Bartlett′s work. The essays in this book burnish the gold. They deal with the fieldwork as against controlled experiment. They show how memory is social in origin, that memories are socially constituted states, representing a form of social memory, irreducible in a single mind yet essential to the mental life of each individual′ - Lore and Language`Argues (and to considerable effect) that memory does not reside in an individual′s head, as all the hard-line experimental psychologists and neurocognitivists would claim, but in the collective talk which underpins all social interaction... It is difficult right now to say how the lively and provocative work reported in this book will interface with all those tedious laboratory studies of memory, but I feel that any such relations can only be for the good′ - Systems Practice`A terrific book... This collection of case studies and theoretical perspectives demonstrates that the most exciting new understandings of memory will come on the undeveloped terrain that lies between the study of unnaturally isolated individual recollection and the study of unnaturally passive cultural myth. Taken together, these essays are the freshest and most promising approach I have seen to begin to map the features we are likely to find in this terrain′ - David Thelen, Indiana University`This is one of the most important new volumes we have in the trend to take memory out of the artificial laboratory and put it into the real contexts of cultural, historical and institutional settings. The authors have brilliantly described a wide range of phenomena that fall under the heading of collective remembering, but perhaps even more importantly they have challenged many of the theoretical constructs and boundaries of contemporary social science. It is a major accomplishment and will be looked upon for years as being well ahead of its time′ - James V Wertsch, Clark University

• Preface - Michael ColeIntroduction - David Middleton and Derek EdwardsConversational Remembering - David Middleton and Derek EdwardsA Social Psychological ApproachArtefacts, Memory and a Sense of the Past - Alan RadleyCollective Memory, Ideology and the British Royal Family - Michael BilligThe Reconstruction of Abraham Lincoln - Barry SchwartzRonald Reagan Misremembered - Michael SchudsonThe Social Construction of Remembering and Forgetting - John ShotterOrganizational Forgetting - Yrj[um]o Engestr[um]om, Katherine Brown, Ritva Engestr[um]om and Kirsi KoistinenAn Activity-Theoretical PerspectiveSharing Knowledge, Celebrating Identity - Julian E OrrCommunity Memory in a Service CultureFolk Explanation in Language Survival - Carol A PaddenSocial Memory in Soviet Thought - David Bakhurst