Collective memory and intergroup relations

The paper stresses the utility of a closer link between recent reassessments of social and collective dimensions of memory and the lines of research on intergroup relations. We maintain that by this link, suprisingly not fully explored to date, both fields could profit significantly. On one side, it is possible to highlight the crucial role of collective memories in the definition of identities and of boundaries of groups. On the other side, it could be argued that the study of the ways in which collective and social memories are actually performed in intergroup context may improve the understanding of the processes involved. In our opinion, a full development of this link have been hindered by a widely diffused individualistic reading of some classical contributions in the field of collective memory, and by the growing radicalism of recent socio-constructionist approaches to the same topic. As to the first point, we propose a new reading of Bartlett's work; as to the second, we support the reduction of the clash between cognitive and socio-constructionist approaches on memory research.