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Collective Memory and Historical Sociology

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The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences

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Abstract

This chapter argues that collective memory studies contribute important insights into the most enduring concerns of historical sociology, notably epochal social transformations, modernization processes, class formation and dissolution, and the origins and decay of states structures. However, memory studies, along with their conceptual toolkit created amid contemporary transnational turn and grassroots struggles over uses of the past, are also inspiring new waves of research in historical sociology. Not only memory studies aid critical reflection on Western-centric categories of historical inquiry, but the alliances between scholars of memory and memory activists make the field sensitive to the diverse application of uses of the past around the world. Memory studies remain at the forefront of humanities and social science today and deserve the close attention of historical sociologists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Joanna Wawrzyniak

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  1. Joanna Wawrzyniak
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Correspondence to Joanna Wawrzyniak .

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  1. Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David McCallum

Section Editor information

  1. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Marta Bucholc

  2. School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Stephen Mennell

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Wawrzyniak, J. (2022). Collective Memory and Historical Sociology. In: McCallum, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7255-2_56

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