Memory and Protest: The Role of Future Goals in Shaping Understandings of the Past

• In Event: 3451 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 13. Temporality, History, and Collective Memory

Abstract

This paper utilizes American pragmatism and phenomenology to illustrate that scholars cannot truly engage with how activists’ memories affect their actions without also engaging with their current experiences and hopes for the future. A synthesis of these theoretical approaches highlights how we are never the same in the present, affecting our memories of the past and desires for the future. In the real experience of time, the past, present, and future are in constant flux and affect one another, shaping both our valuations of a moment and the actions we take. The Populist movement in the late 19th century USA illustrates how scholars should try to incorporate analyses of memories, contemporary context, and desired futures to fully understand the experiences and decisions of protesters. Engaging with time, both with the real experience of those we study and also how it affects our analyses, improves our understandings of social phenomena.

Author

• Daniel Jaster, University of South Dakota