Integrative Aspects of Collective Memory

Abstract

Ongoing globalization foregrounds the task of finding reliable bases for preservation and development of the socio-cultural identity of peoples and individuals. Among such foundations is collective memory, as experience of the historical past, fixed in individual and social consciousness and determining the main patterns of social dynamics. The long-studies phenomenon of collective memory is the area of interdisciplinary research. The researchers focus on the map of collective memory and its renewal processes, the sources and mechanisms of its formation, the relationship between memory and history, the dialectics of collective and individual memory, the processes of preserving the past and its oblivion. In a risk society, the interest in the study of collective memory takes on a special practical significance. The article is devoted to identifying and describing the integrative potential of collective memory. Achieving this goal presupposes solving interrelated tasks: to reveal the essence of collective memory as the most important phenomenon of social consciousness; to explicate the prerequisites for the formation and identify the factors of development of collective memory in present-day conditions; to analyze the possibilities and features of the integrative potential of collective memory. The work reveals substantial features of the formation and transformation of collective memory. It considers the growing importance of media technologies and mass culture since the middle of the 20 th century. The consequence of such changes is growing complication of the structures of collective memory, increase in variability of its national versions. This contributes to disintegration of its holistic picture and to formation of many alternative options. The article substantiates that the integrative potential of collective memory acts as one of the principal foundations of social solidarity.