"Throughout the twenty-first century, genocide denial has evolved and adapted with new strategies to augment and complement established modes of denial. In addition to outright negation, denial of genocide encompasses a range of techniques, including disputes over numbers, contestation of legal defi
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nitions, blaming the victim, and various modes of intimidation, such as threats of legal action. Arguably the most effective strategy has been denial through the purposeful creation of misinformation. Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century brings together leading scholars from across disciplines to add to the body of genocide scholarship that is challenged by denialist literature. By concentrating on factors such as the role of communications and news media, global and national social networks, the weaponization of information by authoritarian regimes and political parties, court cases in the United States and Europe, freedom of speech, and postmodernist thought, this volume discusses how genocide denial is becoming a fact of daily life in the twenty-first century." (Publisher description)
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"The field of memory studies has typically focused on everyday memory and commemoration practices through which we construct meaning and identities. The Right to Memory looks beyond these everyday practices, focusing instead on how memory relates to human rights and socio-legal constructs in order t
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o legitimize and protect groups and individuals. With case studies including Polish Holocaust Law, the Indian origins of Amartya Sen's capability theory approach, and the right to memory through digital technologies in Brazilian and British museums, this collected volume seeks to establish the right to memory as a foundational topic in memory studies." (Publisher description)
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"If a society does not come to terms with horrific atrocities of the past, tensions may fast escalate into new strife. People must know the truth. The causes of violence must be spelt out and the perpetrators must be named. Otherwise, a new sense of mutual trust cannot grow. Such trust is needed for
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competent and reliable institutions of governance. Where, by contrast, the wounds of the past keep festering, a shared understanding of the common good cannot emerge, so a peaceful future stays unlikely." (Page 2)
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"Can dealing with a history of violent conflict through transitional justice help to rebuild social trust? Addressing three gaps in the current literature, we (1) analyse the effect of transitional justice on social trust, thereby going beyond the predominant focus on renewed violence; (2) use novel
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, handcoded data to take donor support for transitional justice into account, a relevant but mostly overlooked factor; and (3) systematically investigate the combined effect of transitional justice instruments using qualitative comparative analysis. The analysis covers 24 cases in 19 postconflict countries over the period 1990–2010. Our results indicate that transitional justice needs to go beyond a narrow focus on victims or perpetrators to foster trust in postconflict societies. We find that combining victim restitution with amnesties or taking a broader, societal approach by focusing on truth-finding or bridge-building activities can increase trust. Moreover, international transitional justice support can play an important role in fostering trust, even in the absence of major national transitional justice processes." (Abstract)
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"Die im demokratischen Deutschland etablierte Erinnerungskultur gilt vielen Bürgerinnen und Bürgern als ein Erfolgsmodell, auf das sie mit einem gewissen Stolz blicken können. In der Tat war es ein langer Weg von der weitgehenden Verdrängung der nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen bis zu ihrer ö
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ffentlichen Anerkennung in einer durch Rituale geprägten, identitätsstiftenden Gedenkkultur. Der Publizist und Lyriker Max Czollek weist jedoch auf die Widersprüche, blinden Flecken und problematischen Aspekte dieser Erinnerungskultur hin und leuchtet diese aus. So werde die Erinnerung an die Verbrechen vielfach gleichgesetzt mit deren Wiedergutmachung und diene als Geste einer vermeintlichen Versöhnung mit den Opfern und ihren Nachkommen. Jüdinnen und Juden würden hier, wie der Autor im Anschluss an Michal Bodemann konstatiert, für die positive Identitätsstiftung der Deutschen instrumentalisiert. Czollek sieht die Gefahr, dass eine solche Gedenkkultur fortbestehende diskriminierende Machtstrukturen unhinterfragt lasse und sogar als Ressource eines neuen Nationalismus in Anspruch genommen werde. Für Czollek hingegen gilt: Wer Erinnerung ernst meine, müsse akzeptieren, dass vergangenes Unrecht durch sie nicht wiedergutgemacht, die zugefügten Wunden nicht geschlossen werden können – und dass mit dem Erinnern der Auftrag verbunden sei, diskriminierende Strukturen auch in der Gegenwart zu benennen und zu bekämpfen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This paper examines the journalistic discourse on the Instagram project @ichbinsophiescholl, initiated by Südwestrundfunk (SWR) and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). The project is based on a fictional premise in which the resistance fighter Sophie Scholl uses the social media platform Instagram during t
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he last few months before her arrest and murder in 1943. This thought experiment and its implementation in 2021 attracted a great deal of media attention and, at its peak, more than 900,000 mostly young people were following Sophie Scholl, played by Luna Wedler, on Instagram. The PR departments of SWR and BR communicated the number of followers and the extensive reporting as a major success and vindication of their approach to reaching young people. This analysis reconstructs discursive patterns, discourse strands, and discourse positions in the reporting on the project between May 1, 2021 and July 20, 2022. Based on the findings, we discuss the extent to which »the« journalism has fulfilled its public role and the various functions assigned to it." (Abstract)
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"In Tansania etablierten sich seit der Unabhängigkeit des Landes neue und eigenständige Praktiken in der Verwendung kolonialer HinterlassenschaftenAusgehend von den aktuellen Gebrauchsweisen dreier Fotografien aus dem späten 19und frühen 20Jahrhundert zeigt Eliane Kurmann, wie Tansanierinnen und
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Tansanier sich solche Bilder seit den 1960er Jahren aneignen und sie umdeuten, um sie in die postkoloniale Geschichtskultur einzubindenDabei widerspiegeln sich die tiefgreifenden Verschiebungen, die tansanische Geschichtsbilder seit der Kolonialzeit erfahren habenDas Buch geht auch den Entstehungskontexten dieser Fotografien und ihren früheren Verwendungen nach und entschlüsselt die medialen Konstellationen, in denen sie einst ihre kolonialen Bedeutungen erhieltenDie drei Fotogeschichten veranschaulichen, wie koloniale Fotografien zu Bildern der tansanischen Geschichte geworden sind." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This book brings together scholars and practitioners for a unique inter-disciplinary exploration of justice and memory within Rwanda. It explores the various strategies the state, civil society, and individuals have employed to come to terms with their past and shape their future. The main objectiv
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e and focus is to explore broad and varied approaches to post-atrocity memory and justice through the work of those with direct experience with the genocide and its aftermath. This includes many Rwandan authors as well as scholars who have conducted fieldwork in Rwanda. By exploring the concepts of how justice and memory are understood the editors have compiled a book that combines disciplines, voices, and unique insights that are not generally found elsewhere." (Publisher description)
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"The COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, spread to the rest of the world in 2020 and still holds nations in its grip in 2021. There is scant research on the way it has affected Holocaust awareness. Based on scholarly work on Holocaust awareness in Israel, the top-down memory of the Holocaust in the med
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ia and the vernacular Holocaust memory on social media, this article analyzes the ways the Holocaust became a frame of reference in Israel for the interpretation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the newest link in a long chain of using the Holocaust as a prism for other topics in Israeli society. The article centers on the evolution of the COVID-19 – Holocaust references and the role of media and social media in it. It shows that the initial panic created a wave of comparisons between the Holocaust and the pandemic in the media and social media. In the second half of the year, as the restrictions and two more lockdowns became part of life, references to the Holocaust changed – negative reactions to COVID-19 government regulations and law enforcement were compared on social media to Nazi acts. The Israeli media did not create these comparisons but reported them widely and contributed to their circulation." (Abstract)
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"Memory and Erasure brings together young and established Zimbabwean scholars and activists who explore with fresh eyes the failure to overcome the terrible legacies of this period. At its heart is recognition that justice cannot be achieved while Gukurahundi’s perpetrators remain in power and sti
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ll seek to control the memory of that period. The chapters explore the failures of peacebuilding, finding only a negative peace, the weighty obstacle to reform of the ‘securocratic state’, and the weaknesses of transitional justice efforts and institutions, from the late 1980s to the present. They focus on ‘linguistic genocide’, noting not only the use of linguistic difference to violently divide and target during Gukurahundi, but the use of Gukurahundi as metaphor for a structural violence that has carried on in the daily life of Ndebele speakers into the present. A highly original chapter focuses on the layered and gendered silences, powerfully rooted in shame and humiliation, that continue to shroud victims of sexual violence. The book ends with an important chapter on popular efforts at making counter-memory, through public lectures, the subversion of official celebrations, the reclaiming of statues, and above all an ongoing battle over the memorialisation of Bhalagwe camp, where thousands of people were detained, tortured and killed by state agents. This is a lonely, dangerous struggle, but it also underlines the ultimate failure of the party-state’s ‘anti-memory’. This book engages with wide-ranging theoretical work on transitional justice and memory, and makes revealing comparisons with cases from the former Yugoslavia to Namibia and South Africa." (Publisher description)
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"Los medios de comunicación son grandes aliados en la sensibilización y apropiación del legado de la Comisión de la Verdad. El Informe Final brinda la oportunidad de difundirlo a través de una variedad de formatos innovadores que vayan más allá del registro de historias. Los contextos explica
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tivos que incluye el Informe Final se convierten en información novedosa para desarrollar durante un largo tiempo. Al momento de contrastar la información es recomendable escuchar y dar cabida a todas las voces. Procurar un relato humanizante. Ir más allá de lo evidente. Evidenciar los factores de persistencia del conflicto." (Algunas sugerencias y oportunidades periodísticas para el abordaje del Informe, página 209)
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"This publication is the first report from UNESCO and the United Nations to specifically address Holocaust denial and distortion. It details the ways in which social media is fertile ground for hate and prejudice - and proposes actions we can take in response. Based on the data of billions of Facebo
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ok, Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram users, the report outlines what information English, French, Spanish, and German speakers encounter about the Holocaust. Almost half of all Holocaust-related content on Telegram, for example, is false, misleading, or distorted. Holocaust denial and distortion are often present alongside other types of online hate speech and misinformation such as homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, conspiracy theory and COVID-19 denial. This co-presence indicates that these issues should not necessarily be addressed in isolation." (Foreword)
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"Este trabajo tiene como objetivo central el análisis de dos proyectos transmedia latinoamericanos en el marco de la no ficción, circunscritos desde el método del estudio de casos y la aplicación de elementos de la teoría del actor-red, donde las relaciones, la conformación de grupos sociales
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que experimentaron realidades, llegan a gestar el valor de agenciamiento, como un enfoque que expande y contribuye a la comprensión y sostenibilidad de la historia y la experiencia en el tiempo del proyecto transmedia. El nivel de impacto en la audiencia de estos dos sistemas narrativos [Proyecto Quipu, Peru; Proyecto 4Ríos, Colombia] permitió apuntalar sus realidades desde la articulación de acciones de lucha social dentro y fuera de la red, ubicando sus temáticas en agendas políticas y periodísticas locales e internacionales. Impactos que se retoman a la luz de las características de los formatos de la transmedia de no ficción y sus potencialidades cocreativas, con el fin de dinamizar las relaciones sociales y activar la comunicación participativa dentro del ecosistema digital." (Resumen)
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