What is at play in the mediation of history? A local case-study.

The mediation of history is no longer the prerogative of only historians and curators. Everyone has something to say about the past. To date, what takes place socially in the mediation of history, the implementation of heritage, and the public expression of memories has not been studied in an empirical manner. Yet this question is at the core of the cluster’s problematics.
The project seeks to unpack the question of history’s mediation by working at the local level. It will be based on two principal research sites in Paris (prosopographic studies of social actors of memory) and Villeurbanne (interviews, observations, and quantitative data). Doctoral students may help to provide comparative perspectives with Chilean, Colombian, and American examples. The objective in this framework of the cluster will be to response to several questions: who is invested in the mediation of history? How is this mediation constructed? Upon what material support will those who wish to establish themselves as the legitimate artisans of this mediation rely?

Project leaders
Sarah GENSBURGER, researcher, CNRS, Institute for Social Sciences of Politics;
Michèle BAUSSANT, researcher, CNRS, Laboratory of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology

Internal cluster partners
Institute for Social Sciences of Politics (ISP);
Laboratory of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology (LESC)

Project managers

Sarah GENSBURGER , ISP

Michèle BAUSSANT , LESC

Internal cluster partners

• Institute for Social Sciences of Politics (ISP) - UMR 7220
• Laboratory of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology (LESC) - UMR 7186

Duration