Memory, Media and Methodological Footings

Abstract

In this chapter we focus on the question of methodological procedure in the investigation of personal and public memory and the manifold relations between them. We do so because issues and concerns relating to methodology have been largely neglected in memory studies.¹ There are various reasons for this neglect, but among them is the perceived need for an emergent field first and foremost to establish its theoretical credentials and develop its key conceptual tools. We agree that this is an important task, and over the years we have read with interest, and contributed to, the theoretical discussion and debate that has taken place over the relative merits of terms defining particular dimensions of memory as well as the alleged consequences for memory, in its different dimensions, of such developments as the commodification of memory artefacts or the globalized production and distribution of cultural goods and services.² Such debate has proved useful in helping the field to come together and in refining our understanding of what is at stake in changing aspects of public remembering, but at some point we have to face the problem that without being empirically grounded in some way, any area of debate remains speculative, its claims not given any concerted demonstration, its assertions made without substantive evidential backing.