Introduction: The Digital Memory Work Practices of Social Movements

This introductory chapter reviews the efforts already made to investigate the interfaces between social movements, cultural memory and digital media. Its first section discusses those studies that have previously examined the relations between social movements and cultural memory. A second section reviews the growing body of literature that addresses the link between cultural memory and digital media. The third section elaborates the research dedicated to the connections between digital media and social movements. The chapter then presents the digital memory work practices of social movements as one means by which to consider the overlaps between these three areas of enquiry and, building on those research efforts most relevant to the volume’s overall goals, introduces three examples of such practices related to mnemonic claims, circulations and curations. The distinction between claiming, circulating and curating practices is then used as a means to structure and introduce the different contributions to the volume.