Voices of War and Peace

随着联盟纪念第一次世界大战一百周年的计划的启动，这位社区秘书说：“随着第一次世界大战从共同的记忆进入历史，我们决心确保这些记忆被保留下来。”但他脑海中的共同记忆是什么？记住，就像忘记一样，永远是一种政治行为。这场战争是一场全球性的冲突，在当地留下了印记。它在城市和农村的体验是不是不同？战时和战后，军人和平民之间的关系是什么？它塑造了个人和社区的身份认同吗？它对同时代的人有不同的意义吗？人们一致认为，应纪念和纪念死者，但对于如何理解牺牲的例子，以及纪念行为的意义和经验，人们的共识较少。随着时间的推移，这些含义发生了怎样的变化？今天人们将如何理解它？‘过去是一个异国他乡：他们在那里做事的方式不同’，这是一个老生常谈吗？当然，今天的英国与1914年的英国是一个非常不同的国家，Parekh(2000)将其描述为“一个社区共同体”。年轻人对坐落在城市和乡村风景中的当地死者纪念碑和将以他们为中心的老一辈人组织的纪念活动有什么意义？对于在这样一个社会中长大的年轻人来说，这场战争有什么意义？在这个社会里，智能手机上随时可以看到关于冲突的现场报道，媒体会立即报道阿富汗死难者的归来。他们将如何将过去与他们的现在和未来联系起来？随着第一次世界大战从记忆中走进历史，他们将经历的纪念记录将在2018年后留下什么，供未来的历史学家反思？这些只是对艺术及人文研究局/传统奖券基金联合纪念项目进行反思而产生的一些问题。这些思考反过来形成了《战争与和平的声音：伟大的战争及其遗产》项目提案。这一跨学科项目的核心是对社区参与研究的机构承诺，以及对调查、分析、理解、批评和判断的专业承诺，从而将爱德华·赛义德关于“解释社区”的想法转化为实践(Said 2003)。该项目将以英国第二大城市伯明翰为主要记忆地点，与当地和全国多个社区/公众进行接触，通过对话探讨有关记忆、记忆和纪念的问题。研究网络将回应社区在能力建设方面提供支持的请求，并支持社区主导的研究议程。该项目将与其他资助中心和国家公共参与协调中心合作，致力于发展早期职业研究人员的社区参与经验。该网络在其相关知识专长之外的优势是其成员在有效的伙伴关系工作方面的经验。作为一个参与国际活动的网络，它将寻求与伯明翰姊妹城市的文化机构的关系，并通过21世纪大学网络了解其他国家和地方的纪念进程，从而进一步阐明我们对英国纪念活动的理解。通过共享知识、专业知识和资源，该项目将在共同设计和共同制作研究的能力、对记忆和遗忘之间复杂关系的理解以及继续“回顾过去”的愿望方面，为社区/学术关系留下自己的遗产。

With the launch of the Coalition's plans to mark the centenary of the Great War, the Communities Secretary observed: 'As the First World War moves out of common memory into history, we're determined to make sure these memories are retained', but which common memories did he have in mind? Remembering, just like forgetting, is always a political act. The war was a global conflict which left its mark on the local. Was it experienced differently in urban and rural areas? What were the relationships between soldiers and civilians during and after the war? Did it shape individual and community identities? Did it have different meanings for contemporaries? There was a consensus that the dead were to be commemorated and remembered, but there was less agreement over how the example of sacrifice was to be understood and the meanings to be attributed to and experiences to be drawn from acts of commemoration. How have these meanings changed over time? How will it be understood today? Is it a truism that 'the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there'? Certainly, Britain today is a very different country to that of 1914 and has been described by Parekh (2000) as 'a community of communities.' What sense will young people make of the local memorials to the dead which sit in the urban and rural landscapes and the acts of commemoration organised by an older generation which will centre upon them? What meaning will the war have for young people who have grown up in a society where live reports of conflict are readily available on a smartphone and where the return of the dead from Afghanistan is instantly reported in the media? How will they connect the past with their present and their future? As the First World War moves out of memory into history, what will be the record of commemoration they will have experienced that will be left after 2018 for future historians to reflect upon? These are just some of the questions which have been generated by reflecting on the joint Arts and Humanities Research Council/Heritage Lottery Fund commemorative project. These reflections have in turn shaped the 'Voices of War and Peace: the Great War and its Legacy' project proposal. At the core of this cross disciplinary project is an institutional commitment to community engagement with research and a professional commitment 'in a mission of understanding' to investigate, analyse, apprehend, criticize and judge and thereby translate Edward Said's idea of 'communities of interpretation' into practice (Said 2003). Using Birmingham, the UK's second city, as its primary place of memory, the project will reach out to multiple communities/publics both local and national to explore through dialogue issues around memory, remembering and commemoration. The research network will respond to community requests for support in terms of capacity building and support community driven research agenda. Working with other funded centres and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) the project will invest in developing the community engagement experience of early career researchers. A strength of the network beyond its relevant knowledge expertise is the experience embedded within its membership of effective partnership working. As an internationally engaged network, it will seek out relations with cultural institutions in Birmingham's sister cities and through the Universitas 21 network to understand other national and local processes of commemoration and thereby further illuminate our understanding of memorial activities in the UK. Sharing knowledge, expertise and resources, it is intended that the project will leave its own legacy for community/academy relations in terms of the capacity for the co-design and co-production of research, an understanding of the complicated relationship between remembering and forgetting and a desire to continue to 'think forward through the past'.