"In contexts where young people feel prohibited from reflecting openly on sensitive political issues, they may explore alternative ways to communicate and negotiate their opinions and beliefs. Internet memes are popular digital artifacts that offer a space for such debates. This research focuses on
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the Internet memes that were created and used as an unconventional method for discussing post-genocide peacebuilding processes among Rwandan youth. These memes were made in storytelling workshops that involved interacting with transmedia projects and creating stories about peacebuilding and reconciliation processes in Rwanda, Guatemala and Cambodia. Within this context, this study approaches memes as participatory tools that allow (1) youth inclusion in post-genocide peacebuilding, often considered an ‘adult topic’ and (2) the mapping out of the social imaginaries of peace by young people in post-genocide societies. The paper analyzes how and why young Rwandans negotiate peacebuilding processes through memes and the ambivalence of utilizing memes for youth participation. The results suggest that meme-making emerged mainly as a response to intergenerational differences in discussing the genocide and peace-related issues. Humor in the memes unveiled differences in the ways of addressing peacebuilding processes. Detachment from other contexts resulted in more sarcastic articulations, whereas proximity led to more positive reflections on how peacebuilding should unfold in post-genocide societies. While meme-making proved to be useful for sparking discussions and manifesting imaginaries of peace, it also showed how certain dominant discourses about peacebuilding processes are embraced and often not contested within memes due to self-censorship." (Abstract)
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"If a society does not come to terms with horrific atrocities of the past, tensions may fast escalate into new strife. People must know the truth. The causes of violence must be spelt out and the perpetrators must be named. Otherwise, a new sense of mutual trust cannot grow. Such trust is needed for
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competent and reliable institutions of governance. Where, by contrast, the wounds of the past keep festering, a shared understanding of the common good cannot emerge, so a peaceful future stays unlikely." (Page 2)
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"Das deutsche Kolonialreich war nicht groß und währte nur 30 Jahre. Es wirkte jedoch in vielfältiger Weise auf Deutschland zurück. Sebastian Conrad beschreibt, wie die koloniale Ordnung funktionierte, wo sie an ihre Grenzen stieß und wie die einheimischen Gesellschaften auf die Fremdherrschaft
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reagierten. Gleichzeitig bindet er die Geschichte der Kolonien in den größeren Zusammenhang der Globalisierung um 1900 ein und zeigt, wie stark die koloniale Erfahrung das Denken der Europäer prägte." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Providing a refreshing take on transitional justice, this thoroughly revised second edition brings together an expanse of scholarly expertise to reconsider how societies deal with gross human rights violations, structural injustices and mass violence. Contextualised by historical developments, it c
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overs a diverse range of concepts, actors and mechanisms of transitional justice, while shedding light on the new and emerging areas in the field. Wholly engaging with the field's upward trajectory, this Handbook explores important new ground on existing issues of transitional justice, including masculinities, witnesses and the role of archives. This updated edition also engages with newly evolving areas of study, such as counter-terrorism, climate change, colonialism and non-paradigmatic transitions." (Publisher description)
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"This paper examines the journalistic discourse on the Instagram project @ichbinsophiescholl, initiated by Südwestrundfunk (SWR) and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). The project is based on a fictional premise in which the resistance fighter Sophie Scholl uses the social media platform Instagram during t
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he last few months before her arrest and murder in 1943. This thought experiment and its implementation in 2021 attracted a great deal of media attention and, at its peak, more than 900,000 mostly young people were following Sophie Scholl, played by Luna Wedler, on Instagram. The PR departments of SWR and BR communicated the number of followers and the extensive reporting as a major success and vindication of their approach to reaching young people. This analysis reconstructs discursive patterns, discourse strands, and discourse positions in the reporting on the project between May 1, 2021 and July 20, 2022. Based on the findings, we discuss the extent to which »the« journalism has fulfilled its public role and the various functions assigned to it." (Abstract)
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"This manual offers ideas on how to discuss a violent past in an active manner. The manual mostly focuses on methodology: how to make learning about the past interesting for learners. There is less focus on the specific content of the past. To spark learner’s interest in the (violent) past, it is
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helpful to choose a learner-centered approach. This manual uses the following elements of learner-centered learning: to give learners a voice in what they want to learn about the past based on their own interests, to first let them find out by themselves before information is provided, to foster curiosity, to encourage joint learning and to link local findings with the wider history.
Encouraging discussion: As the title shows, a main aim of this manual is to provide learners – and facilitators – with activities to not only learn about the past, but also to discuss it. The activities let learners practice key elements of discussion, such as active listening (with the attempt to understand the other well), responding to each other’s statements or arguments, not judging others’ opinions, aiming to understand motives and intentions, etc. In this process, it is the facilitator’s task to guide the discussion, to keep it on topic and not let it get personal, ensure that different perspectives are included and that all learners can express themselves." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Can dealing with a history of violent conflict through transitional justice help to rebuild social trust? Addressing three gaps in the current literature, we (1) analyse the effect of transitional justice on social trust, thereby going beyond the predominant focus on renewed violence; (2) use novel
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, handcoded data to take donor support for transitional justice into account, a relevant but mostly overlooked factor; and (3) systematically investigate the combined effect of transitional justice instruments using qualitative comparative analysis. The analysis covers 24 cases in 19 postconflict countries over the period 1990–2010. Our results indicate that transitional justice needs to go beyond a narrow focus on victims or perpetrators to foster trust in postconflict societies. We find that combining victim restitution with amnesties or taking a broader, societal approach by focusing on truth-finding or bridge-building activities can increase trust. Moreover, international transitional justice support can play an important role in fostering trust, even in the absence of major national transitional justice processes." (Abstract)
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"Die im demokratischen Deutschland etablierte Erinnerungskultur gilt vielen Bürgerinnen und Bürgern als ein Erfolgsmodell, auf das sie mit einem gewissen Stolz blicken können. In der Tat war es ein langer Weg von der weitgehenden Verdrängung der nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen bis zu ihrer ö
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ffentlichen Anerkennung in einer durch Rituale geprägten, identitätsstiftenden Gedenkkultur. Der Publizist und Lyriker Max Czollek weist jedoch auf die Widersprüche, blinden Flecken und problematischen Aspekte dieser Erinnerungskultur hin und leuchtet diese aus. So werde die Erinnerung an die Verbrechen vielfach gleichgesetzt mit deren Wiedergutmachung und diene als Geste einer vermeintlichen Versöhnung mit den Opfern und ihren Nachkommen. Jüdinnen und Juden würden hier, wie der Autor im Anschluss an Michal Bodemann konstatiert, für die positive Identitätsstiftung der Deutschen instrumentalisiert. Czollek sieht die Gefahr, dass eine solche Gedenkkultur fortbestehende diskriminierende Machtstrukturen unhinterfragt lasse und sogar als Ressource eines neuen Nationalismus in Anspruch genommen werde. Für Czollek hingegen gilt: Wer Erinnerung ernst meine, müsse akzeptieren, dass vergangenes Unrecht durch sie nicht wiedergutgemacht, die zugefügten Wunden nicht geschlossen werden können – und dass mit dem Erinnern der Auftrag verbunden sei, diskriminierende Strukturen auch in der Gegenwart zu benennen und zu bekämpfen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This book brings together scholars and practitioners for a unique inter-disciplinary exploration of justice and memory within Rwanda. It explores the various strategies the state, civil society, and individuals have employed to come to terms with their past and shape their future. The main objectiv
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e and focus is to explore broad and varied approaches to post-atrocity memory and justice through the work of those with direct experience with the genocide and its aftermath. This includes many Rwandan authors as well as scholars who have conducted fieldwork in Rwanda. By exploring the concepts of how justice and memory are understood the editors have compiled a book that combines disciplines, voices, and unique insights that are not generally found elsewhere." (Publisher description)
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"The field of memory studies has typically focused on everyday memory and commemoration practices through which we construct meaning and identities. The Right to Memory looks beyond these everyday practices, focusing instead on how memory relates to human rights and socio-legal constructs in order t
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o legitimize and protect groups and individuals. With case studies including Polish Holocaust Law, the Indian origins of Amartya Sen's capability theory approach, and the right to memory through digital technologies in Brazilian and British museums, this collected volume seeks to establish the right to memory as a foundational topic in memory studies." (Publisher description)
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"This chapter explored the linguistic dimensions of Gukurahundi to show the centrality of language before, during and after the genocide. We drew on online testimonies from survivors and statements from government officials as well as visible language planning and language practices in the post-Guku
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rahundi era. In doing so, we have shown how the Shona language was weaponised and continues to be deployed as a tool for perpetuating the legacy of Gukurahundi in symbolic forms. Languages are more than neutral instruments of communication; they reflect important symbolic and identity roles, particularly in post-conflict societies. In post Gukurahundi Zimbabwe, the issue of language has remained topical as language is an important means of maintaining, legitimating, effectuating and reproducing unequal relations of power. The foregoing suggests that the presentation of the Shona language within the Zimbabwean state, state-aligned institutions and in Zimbabwean society at large reflects the cultural and political antagonisms dating back to the preindependence era. It is in fact a subtle form violence that undermines everything that is different. As a continuation of conflict in symbolic and cultural ways in supposed times of peace, this has implications for processes of reconciliation. Consequently, for victims and survivors, the term gukurahundi has become a synonym and a metaphor for the structural violence and subjugation experienced contemporaneously." (Conclusion)
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"Memory and Erasure brings together young and established Zimbabwean scholars and activists who explore with fresh eyes the failure to overcome the terrible legacies of this period. At its heart is recognition that justice cannot be achieved while Gukurahundi’s perpetrators remain in power and sti
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ll seek to control the memory of that period. The chapters explore the failures of peacebuilding, finding only a negative peace, the weighty obstacle to reform of the ‘securocratic state’, and the weaknesses of transitional justice efforts and institutions, from the late 1980s to the present. They focus on ‘linguistic genocide’, noting not only the use of linguistic difference to violently divide and target during Gukurahundi, but the use of Gukurahundi as metaphor for a structural violence that has carried on in the daily life of Ndebele speakers into the present. A highly original chapter focuses on the layered and gendered silences, powerfully rooted in shame and humiliation, that continue to shroud victims of sexual violence. The book ends with an important chapter on popular efforts at making counter-memory, through public lectures, the subversion of official celebrations, the reclaiming of statues, and above all an ongoing battle over the memorialisation of Bhalagwe camp, where thousands of people were detained, tortured and killed by state agents. This is a lonely, dangerous struggle, but it also underlines the ultimate failure of the party-state’s ‘anti-memory’. This book engages with wide-ranging theoretical work on transitional justice and memory, and makes revealing comparisons with cases from the former Yugoslavia to Namibia and South Africa." (Publisher description)
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"Los medios de comunicación son grandes aliados en la sensibilización y apropiación del legado de la Comisión de la Verdad. El Informe Final brinda la oportunidad de difundirlo a través de una variedad de formatos innovadores que vayan más allá del registro de historias. Los contextos explica
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tivos que incluye el Informe Final se convierten en información novedosa para desarrollar durante un largo tiempo. Al momento de contrastar la información es recomendable escuchar y dar cabida a todas las voces. Procurar un relato humanizante. Ir más allá de lo evidente. Evidenciar los factores de persistencia del conflicto." (Algunas sugerencias y oportunidades periodísticas para el abordaje del Informe, página 209)
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"A través de historias que nos conmueven y nos tocan emocionalmente, Romper el Silencio tiene como objetivo enseñarnos a escuchar a otras personas con apertura y empatía, aunque piensen distinto; a reconocer sus argumentos aunque no sean los nuestros; a respetar sus ideas sin señalamientos y al
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final, a entendernos y asumir maneras no violentas de tramitar nuestras diferencias personales y sociales, para construir formas de convivencia y contribuir a la no repetición del conflicto armado en Colombia. Utilizando los formatos más populares del entretenimiento, Romper el Silencio facilita a las y los jóvenes, a sus familias, a los docentes y al público en general, armar conversaciones y reflexionar sobre temas complejos, en especial, donde es más difícil: el conflicto armado, lo que pasoì y por queì pasoì, los responsables, la justicia restaurativa y la importancia de la reparación de las víctimas." (Página 2)
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"Questions of reconciliation and memory after genocide and conflict in Cambodia remain finely poised. Young people often do not believe the stories of hardship and loss of the older generation, and cleavages remain between divided and stigmatised former factions. This article reflects on a series of
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participatory video projects led by young Cambodians that sought to engage and explore complex ‘perpetrator’ memories with the aim of building dialogue across communities and generations. Working in partnership with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia through 2018, our participatory-video project sought to document the experiences and accounts of former lower level Khmer Rouge community members. Through a discussion of the 11 films produced, and young filmmakers’ reflections on their involvement in the project, we show how participatory video allows and produces interventions on memory that can renegotiate, augment and contest dominant narratives of past violence. Crucially, we argue, that when read together, the films outline the contours, ambiguities and contestation of claims for ‘complex victimhood’ in Cambodia, and the problems of stabilising singular stories of past violence. We argue that this has implications for transitional justice more broadly, which is a field that tends to rely on neat distinctions of victim and perpetrator and shared accounts and meanings of past harm in the ways it intervenes on memory." (Abstract)
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"Reconciliación significa aceptar la verdad como condición para la construcción colectiva y superar el negacionismo y la impunidad. Significa tomar la determinación de nunca más matarnos y sacar las armas de la política. Significa aceptar que somos muchos —en diverso grado, por acción o por
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omisión— los responsables de la tragedia. Significa respetar al otro, a la otra, por encima de las herencias culturales y las rabias acumuladas. Significa tener en cuenta la herida del otro y sus preocupaciones e intereses. Significa construir de tal manera que el Estado, la justicia, la política, la economía y la seguridad estén al servicio de la dignidad humana igual y sagrada de los colombianos y colombianas. Significa que esto lo vamos a construir juntos o no habrá futuro para nadie, y para ir juntos tenemos que cambiar: que el actual Estado se transforme en un Estado para la gente, que los políticos paren la corrupción, que los empresarios no excluyan de la participación en la producción a una multitud que reclama el derecho a ser parte, que los que acaparan la tierra la entreguen; que cambien todos los que colaboran con el narcotráfico, con la guerra, con la exclusión, con la destrucción de la naturaleza. Que no haya más impunidad. Que los que siguen en la guerra entiendan que no hay derecho para seguir haciéndola porque no permite la democracia ni la justicia y solo trae sufrimientos. Que tenemos que construir desde las diferencias con esperanza y confianza colectiva para que seamos posibles hoy y en las generaciones de mañana." (Página 50-51)
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"Hacemos Memoria reúne en sus asesorías a reporteros, víctimas y ciudadanos interesados en conocer y discutir sobre el pasado violento que vivieron sus comunidades. Este proyecto de la Universidad de Antioquia convirtió el periodismo participativo en una herramienta para la producción colaborat
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iva de relatos sobre hechos asociados al conflicto armado." (Página 1)
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