The Half Life of the Blitz: memory, urban space and civic identity in a provincial town, 1939 - present.

该项目通过对英国历史上最被忽视的城市之一——赫尔河畔金斯顿的战后经历和记忆的研究，考察了对我们共同的过去的理解如何对城市的政治、文化甚至建筑环境产生切实的影响。当地的记忆认为，赫尔是英国遭受轰炸最严重的城市，但却被排除在国家牺牲的名单之外，而国家牺牲的名单主要集中在伦敦和考文垂等具有象征意义的例子上。赫尔闪电战（Blitz on Hull）的严肃性和市民的坚韧不拔已经成为公民记忆的支柱，与这座城市被所谓的从21世纪英国最具影响力、最具争议性、最常被提起的国家故事之一中剥离出来形成鲜明而有争议的对比。再加上赫尔相对孤立的位置——无论是在地理上还是在民族意识上——战后重建的相对缺乏以及随后当地经济的衰退，赫尔的牺牲被遗忘，甚至被诽谤的叙述已经成为这座城市战后个人、历史和政治叙事的中心。赫尔为我们提供了一个明显的例子，说明了强大的叙事如何能够注入辩论和文化形式。该项目使我们能够就其他城市环境中历史偶然身份的重要性提出更广泛的问题，因此对遗产和规划具有重要意义，同时也研究了关于第二次世界大战在21世纪英国性建筑中的位置的当代辩论的争议领域。在赫尔，战后重建不一致、城市更新计划停滞不前、去工业化、缺乏投资和失业，在过去的80年里，被一种叙事反复框定，即战后国家没有回报公民的坚韧。赫尔的“闪电战之路”徒步旅行的流行强调了与闪电战的有形联系的当代理解，引发了对城市被排除在“HS3”铁路连接之外的谣言的愤怒反应，被“被遗忘”的北部城镇和被忽视的人口的政治叙述，并在保护象征性战后建筑的活动中发挥了重要作用。通过探索这些叙事的进展、争论和部署，该项目将闪电战遗产的中心地位作为一个镜头，通过它将有争议的地方身份的形成和重要性，以及它们对城市结构和治理的实际影响历史化。项目的第一阶段包括一系列的公共研讨会、调查和访谈，这将建立当地参与和资源的遗产，同时也不断塑造研究的第一链，帮助项目团队发展他们的调查方向。第二阶段将利用公众参与产生的方向，从口述、城市和政府历史中为研究方法提供信息。研究地方和中央政府的文件和计划，以及活动和媒体报道，以追踪如何想象和使用闪电战的演变遗产，同时对居民进行口述历史采访。该项目建立在与赫尔历史中心的合作基础上，为各种感兴趣的团体、组织和个人创造空间和机会，让他们参与到城市和公民的过去中来。公众将有机会通过社交媒体和互联网了解他们的贡献如何塑造了这个项目。学校研讨会、研讨会的在线访问、社交媒体和短视频将刺激传统观众以外的人参与历史和遗产。我们的目标是在项目期间创造一种现场对话，这将不断激发赫尔市已经充满活力的遗产和历史社区的兴趣，同时也使研究人员超越他们自己对应该研究什么的先验判断。

The project examines how understandings of our shared pasts have tangible impacts upon the politics, culture and even built environments of cities through a study of the post-war experience and memory of one of Britain's most historically neglected cities, Kingston-Upon-Hull. Local memory contends that Hull was Britain's most heavily bombed city, but was excluded from the roll call of national sacrifice that focuses upon emblematic examples like London and Coventry. The severity of the Blitz on Hull and the fortitude of the citizenry have become pillars of a civic memory that forms a stark and contentious counterpoint to the city's alleged excision from what, in the twenty-first century is one of Britain's most potent, contentious and frequently invoked national stories. Combined with Hull's relatively isolated position - in both geographical terms and in the national consciousness- a comparative lack of post-war reconstruction and the subsequent decline of the local economy, the narrative that Hull's sacrifice was forgotten, even maligned has become central to the city's personal, historical and political narratives of the post-war. Hull gives us a visible example of how a powerful narrative can infuse debates and cultural forms. The project enables us to ask broader questions about the importance of historically contingent identities in other urban settings, so has important implications for heritage and planning, whilst also examining contentious areas of contemporary debate over the place of the Second World War in constructions of twenty-first century Britishness. In Hull, inconsistent post-war rebuilding, halting urban renewal schemes, deindustrialisation, lack of investment and unemployment have, over the last 80 years, been repeatedly framed through a narrative that civic fortitude was not reciprocated by the post-war state. Contemporary understandings of the tangible links to the Blitz have been underscored by the popularity of Hull's 'Blitz Trail' walking tour, invoked in angry reactions to rumours of the city's exclusion from 'HS3' rail links, fed into political narratives of 'forgotten' northern towns and ignored populations, and featured in campaigns to preserve symbolic post-war buildings. By exploring the progression, contestation and deployment of these narratives the project uses the centrality of the Blitz's legacy as a lens through which to historicise the formation and importance of contentious local identities, and their tangible impacts upon the fabric and governance of cities. The project's first phase involves a series of public workshops, surveys and interviews that will build-up a legacy of local engagement and resources, but also constantly shape the first strand of the research, helping the project team develop the direction of their investigations The second phase then uses the directions generated through public engagement to inform research approaches from oral, urban and governmental history, examining local and central government documents and schemes alongside campaigns and media coverage to track how the evolving legacy of the Blitz has been imagined and used, whilst conducting oral history interviews with residents. The project builds on its partnership with Hull History Centre to create spaces and opportunities for a diverse set of interested groups, organisations and individuals to engage with their urban and civic past. The public will have the opportunity to follow the ways that their contributions shape the project via social media and the internet. School workshops, online accessibility to workshops, social media and short videos will stimulate participation beyond traditional audiences for history and heritage. We aim to create a live dialogue during the duration of the project that will continually stimulate an already vibrant heritage and historical community of interest in Hull, but also move the researchers past their own a priori judgements about what should be researched.