Political Transition Politics and Cultures

by Gready, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780745320427
• ISBN10: 0745320422
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-20
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

In the twentieth century, many countries around the globe experienced rapid and often traumatic political transformations. From East Germany and Northern Ireland to Argentina, Chile and Zimbabwe, political transition has been momentous and has had a deep impact on the individual culture of each society.This collection explores these periods of political transition and the impact that they have had through an analysis of memory, identity, space/place and voice. Concentrating in particular on post-colonial and post-oppressive regimes in Europe, Southern Africa and Latin America, the contributors assess how individuals come to terms with rapid political change, and the enduring legacies of the past in the present. They examine how political transformations affect people's memories and identities, reworking spaces/places and voices, and how both offical and unofficial mechanisms set up to cope with these changes impact on these issues.Juxtaposing different country and regional experiences and different historical eras, this is a comprehensive guide to the vast range of issues involved in political transition that will appeal to a multidisciplinary audience.

Author Biography

Paul Gready lectures in human rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Politics of Memory
Remembering and Forgetting 'Zimbabwe': Towards a Third Transition	p. 29
Contested Memories of Repression in the Southern Cone: Commemorations in a Comparative Perspective	p. 53
'What is Written in Our Hearts': Memory, Justice and the Healing of Fragmented Communities	p. 70
Memory and Forgetting: The Roma Holocaust	p. 90
Identities
Continuity and Discontinuity of East German Identity Following the Fall of the Berlin Wall: A Case Study	p. 107
Mobilising Memories: Protestant and Unionist Victims' Groups and the Politics of Victimhood in the Irish Peace Process	p. 127
'In the Name of the Victims': The Politics of Compensation in the Work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission	p. 148
The Construction of Voice and Identity in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission	p. 165
Re-making Space
Remembering Ordinary Agency Under East German State Socialism: Revelations of the Rostock District Record, 1978-89	p. 183
Insinuating Spaces: Memories of a Madrid Neighbourhood During the Spanish Transition	p. 198
Public Bad, Public Good(s) and Private Realities	p. 212
Testimony and Voices
The Politics of Memory and International Trials for Wartime Rape	p. 227
Networks of Memory: Chileans Debate Democracy and the Pinochet Legacy Over an Internet Forum	p. 246
Reconciling Reconciliation: A Personal and Public Journey of Testifying Before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission	p. 262
Empire Dies for Irish Freedom: Silence and Amnesia in Anglo-Irish Talks	p. 276
Notes on Contributors	p. 290
Index	p. 295
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