Group Memory and Electronic Memory

Abstract

The two types of memory that are the focus of this chapter are group memory and electronic memory. A scholar whom we have already mentioned, Maurice Halbwachs, is a major figure with regard to the concept of group memory. In the early twentieth century Halbwachs (1952 [1925]) theorized convincingly the social aspect of memory: society is made up of groups and each social group can be thought of as consisting of a number of members who share memory involving past events as well as normative thinking and habitual current practices that have developed over time. It was Halbwachs who coined the term ‘collective memory’ (‘memoire collective’). The main groups with which Halbwachs was concerned were family, religious group, professional group and social class group, but the term ‘collective memory’ can also be applied to larger groups, notably the nation-state. Some theorists warn about extrapolating the concept ‘memory’ (which originally concerned the individual’s brain) to a social group in an over-simplistic manner. Particular worries are using psychoanalytic terminology to characterize a group, and reifying group memory as an abstract faculty, a fixed thing or a social fact. Even if members of society reify memory, according to Olick (2003, 6) the researcher should avoid this conception and, through recognizing the fluid, processual nature of memory, treat it as ‘mnemonic practices’, ideological projects and practices of people in particular settings.