Synthesizing collective memory and counter-memory in urban space

Abstract

ABSTRACT The June 2020 Black Lives Matter protests which took place at the Cenotaph and the Winston Churchill memorial in London triggered national debate in the United Kingdom regarding the roles that memorials play in urban spaces. Stoked by media sensationalism, public discourse and action became increasingly vitriolic in the weeks following the protests. This contribution to Debates and Interventions problematizes this divisive understanding of memorialization by demonstrating the relationality of collective memory and counter-memory, which ostensibly were competing rationales that drove the protests. By establishing collective memory and counter-memory as co-dependent concepts, this intervention proposes that their synthesis would enable the public to openly mediate their relationships with urban memorial sites and thus enrich our understanding and experience of contested urban spaces.