Voices of War and Peace

随着联盟纪念大战一百周年的计划的启动，社区秘书观察到：“随着第一次世界大战从共同记忆中进入历史，我们决心确保这些记忆被保留”，但他心目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。城市和农村地区的经历是否不同？在战争期间和战争结束后，士兵和平民之间的关系是什么？它塑造了个人和社区的身份吗？它对同时代人有不同的意义吗？与会者一致认为，应当纪念和缅怀死者，但在如何理解牺牲的例子、纪念行为的意义和从中汲取的经验等问题上，意见不太一致。这些含义是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？今天将如何理解它？“过去是一个外国：他们在那里做事情的方式不同”，这是一个老生常谈吗？当然，今天的英国与1914年的英国大不相同，Parekh（2000）将其描述为“社区的社区”。“年轻人对坐落在城市和农村景观中的当地死者纪念馆以及由老一辈组织的以他们为中心的纪念活动有什么意义？对于在一个智能手机上随时可以看到冲突现场报道、媒体立即报道阿富汗死者回归的社会中长大的年轻人来说，战争有什么意义？他们将如何将过去与现在和未来联系起来？随着第一次世界大战从记忆中走入历史，他们将经历的纪念记录将在2018年之后留给未来的历史学家思考？这些只是在反思艺术与人文研究理事会/遗产彩票基金联合纪念项目时产生的一些问题。这些反思反过来又形成了“战争与和平之声：大战及其遗产”项目提案。这个跨学科项目的核心是对社区参与研究的机构承诺和“理解的使命”的专业承诺，以调查，分析，理解，批评和判断，从而将爱德华·赛义德的“解释社区”的想法转化为实践（赛义德2003年）。该项目将利用英国第二大城市伯明翰作为主要的记忆场所，与地方和国家的多个社区/公众接触，通过对话探讨记忆、纪念和纪念问题。研究网络将响应社区在能力建设方面的支持请求，并支持社区驱动的研究议程。该项目将与其他受资助的中心和国家公众参与协调中心（NCCPE）合作，投资于发展早期职业研究人员的社区参与经验。除了相关知识专长之外，该网络的一个优势是其成员具有有效合作伙伴关系的经验。作为一个国际参与的网络，它将寻求与伯明翰姐妹城市的文化机构的关系，并通过Universitas 21网络了解其他国家和地方的纪念活动，从而进一步阐明我们对英国纪念活动的理解。共享知识，专业知识和资源，其目的是该项目将留下自己的遗产社区/学术界的关系方面的能力，共同设计和共同生产的研究，记忆和遗忘之间的复杂关系的理解和愿望，继续“通过过去向前思考”。

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'.