Social memory

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The term social memory describes social references to the past. In addition to routines, practices or significant objects, this includes the various forms of remembering, but also the omission of such references in the sense of forgetting in communities and societies. Because of these diverse starting points and because references to the past differ in different areas of the social, it makes sense to use the term in the plural - as social memories.

Social memory as a meta-concept

Social memory is a meta-term for a large number of different social and cultural-scientific memory theories. On the one hand, it distinguishes itself from collective memory , since it not only records the past references of social groups , but all forms of socially mediated references to the past through practice, habitus , biographies , generations , social structures, social systems , societal knowledge stores or discourses . On the other hand, it differs from the pair of terms communicative memory and cultural memory , because it dispenses with a separation along the form of oral / symbolic communication. In addition, the assumption of a comprehensive cultural memory for the highly differentiated societies of modernity is proving difficult under the conditions of globalization and world society .

Social memories as knowledge and time generators

In the style of Maurice Halbwachs and Niklas Luhmann, memory is conceived as an ever present process that selectively provides current meaningful traits with forms, patterns, types, processed experiences or expectations and thus constitutes knowledge . This happens on different levels of the social in an intrinsically logical way. Even if individual memories always participate in social memory, the result and development of the social memory processes cannot be fully traced back to these individual memory functions or explained from them. In this sense, the past references of social memories are relatively autonomous. At the same time, social memories influence subjective perception and provide individuals and collectives with orientation knowledge for coping with current and upcoming situations. Social memories are thus the decisive factor in the development of individual and collective time awareness - in short: without social memories there is neither time nor knowledge.

Social forgetting

The complementary term to social memory is social forgetting . Forgetting is used to describe any form of missing or neglecting to refer to the past. A non-addressing or non-application of existing structural elements is thus forgotten. Memory is neither a storage nor a preservation instance, but a structured selection mechanism that takes up or fades out certain impressions depending on the path. In the course of its activity, it permanently changes its own structure. This can also be done unconsciously - you don't even know that you have forgotten something. What is socially forgotten is knowledge that, for whatever reason, is not addressed and updated over the long term. Causes of social forgetting are, for example, structural amnesia, which results from the permanent change in language, or social change, in the course of which objects (objects, values, norms) fade for which there is no longer any need. While societies are inherently forgetful, social forgetting also takes place in a targeted manner, in that certain knowledge contents are either collectively suppressed and kept silent (wanting to forget) or systematically hidden (making forgetting). Finding and retracing traces can make one aware of social oblivion when it becomes clear that one is dealing with something whose meaning must have existed once.

Social remembering

Social remembering marks an exceptional case of social memory. Only that which can become conscious is remembered. For social remembering, what is remembered must be conveyed symbolically or declaratively, i.e., for example, must be able to tell or visualize in the sense of cognitive schemes. Memory always refers to experience , which in turn can be understood as a cognitively processed experience. According to Maurice Halbwachs, remembering can only take place under the prevailing social framework conditions that are defined by social memories. Each individual has been shaped by specific social contexts and has a unique arrangement of memory options; In addition, every situation that the individual gets into suggests certain memory stimuli from his or her subjective point of view. Remembering therefore always takes place as a conscious association of the currently perceived situation with one's own experiences. This connection can also be used politically by creating certain memory contexts in the sense of places of memory . Remembrance politics are a specific variety of social memory activities with a view to the remembered past.

literature

  • Oliver Dimbath, Michael Heinlein: Memory sociology . Fink UTB, Paderborn 2015 ISBN 978-3-8252-4172-8
  • Oliver Dimbath, Michael Heinlein Ed .: The sociality of remembering. Contributions to work on a theory of social memory . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2014 ISBN 9783658034696
  • Elena Esposito : Social Forgetting. Forms and media of memory . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 2002 ISBN 9783518291573
  • Maurice Halbwachs: The memory and its social conditions . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1985 ISBN 9783518281383
  • Maurice Halbwachs: The collective memory . Fischer, Frankfurt 1991 ISBN 978-3596273591
  • Michael Heinlein, Oliver Dimbath, Larissa Schindler, Peter Wehling Eds .: The body as social memory . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016 ISBN 9783658097424
  • René Lehmann, Gerd Sebald, Florian Öchsner Ed .: Forms and functions of social memory. Social and cultural studies analyzes . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013 ISBN 9783658006006
  • Niklas Luhmann: The Society of Society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1997 ISBN 3-518-58247-X pp. 576-594
  • Gerd Sebald: Generalization and meaning. Considerations on the formation of social memories and the social . UVK, Konstanz 2014 ISBN 978-3-86764-576-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maurice Halbwachs : The memory and its social conditions . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 1985, ISBN 978-3518281383 and Maurice Halbwachs: The collective memory . Fischer, Frankfurt 1991 ISBN 978-3518281383
  2. ↑ Jörg Michael Kastl : The habitus as non-declarative memory. On the relevance of neuropsychological amnesia research for psychology . In: Sozialer Sinn 2, 2004, pp. 195–226
  3. ↑ All aspects of social inequality can be understood as memory, e.g. family memories, gender memories, class memories, workers memories etc.
  4. ↑ This is a central and memory-theoretical relevant concept of social phenomenology according to Alfred Schütz ; In the context of social constructivism, this position is expanded by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann - a memory theory reflection can be found in Mathias Berek: collective memory and the social construction of reality. A theory of cultures of remembrance . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3447059213 .
  5. ↑ Jan Assmann : The cultural memory. Scripture, Memory and Political Identity in Early High Cultures . 7th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3406568442 or Aleida Assmann : Four forms of memory . In: Erwägen, Wissen, Ethik, 13, pp. 183–190
  6. ^ Niklas Luhmann: The society of society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1997 ISBN 3-518-58247-X p. 578
  7. ↑ This is based on an interaction in which both social memories shape the memories of individuals and individual memories constitute aspects of social memories. For a perspective on individual memory as social memory, cf. classic Maurice Halbwachs and, for example, Jörg Michael Kastl : The secret transcendence of autopoiesis: On the problem of temporality in Luhmann's system theory . In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie 27 (6), pp. 404-417.
  8. ↑ Oliver Dimbath: Oblivionism. Forgetting and forgetfulness in modern science . UVK, Konstanz 2014, ISBN 978-3867644938 .
  9. ↑ Helmut König : Politics and memory . Velbrück, Weilerswist 2008 ISBN 9783938808504