The concept of connective memory highlights how memories are shaped by connections between people, objects, media, and institutions. It derives from the growing discussions on how technological and digital developments affect contemporary memory culture and, in particular, from Andrew Hoskins’ conceptualization of a “connective turn” and a “new memory ecology.” Connective memory is both a methodological and an analytical tool as it inspires memory studies to explore memory by tracing and analyzing how different interactional trajectories intersect with and compete against each other. The concept is thusly designed to challenge ideas of “individual memories” and the binaries of individual and collective and active and passive. Even though the concept of connective memory is closely tied to technological and digital developments, it is important to note that it inspires memory research to investigate both online and offline connections. Connective memory has also been an influential concept in José van Dijck’s more wide-ranging conceptualization of a “culture of connectivity.” Her conceptualization not only engages with remembering but also deals with the connected society as a whole, and it provides a critical perspective on technology and social media platforms.

This article explores how emotions are practised within retrospective Facebook groups and how these practices are shaped by the logics of the interface. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Ahmed’s discussions on emotions and mood work and the study is based on netnographic fieldwork involving six retrospective Facebook groups. Overall, a positive emotional relationship with the past is practised and the analysis illustrates that three interrelated mood works are found in the groups; fascination, nostalgia and knowledge desire. The analysis of these indicate that Facebook’s interface directs the members towards fragmented interactions which produces a memory culture that is more focused on brief and general, rather than elaborate and specific, accounts of the past. I conclude by discussing how the emotional practices within the retrospective Facebook groups creates a double-edged sword; at the same time as they offer a sense of positive emotional belonging for likeminded members, they also risk producing simplified notions of the past that feeds into retrotopian tendencies of the present.

This article investigates conflicts in retrospective Facebook groups, i.e., groups created with a particular interest and focus on the past, to analyse how members of these groups understand the past and how they negotiate, resist and challenge each other’s notions of the past. The data comes from a netnographic fieldwork within six such retrospective groups. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Actor-Network-Theory (Harrison 2013, Latour 2005). The analysis thusly focuses on human (the members of the groups) as well as non-human actors (the operative logic of Facebook) and study how these produce associations between the past and the present. An overall result of the study is that the retrospective Facebook groups are not characterised by conflict. Instead, they are produced as places of sanctuary, where associations with the past becomes a basis for a nostalgic feel-good culture. However, the analysis also shows that the sanctuaries build on the production of a discontinuity and a conflict between the past and the present. Using Boym’s concept of ruinophilia, as well as Bauman’s concept of retrotopia, the article discusses how the conflicted discontinuity between the past and the present produces an us-and-them relationship where group members can come together in a nostalgic as well as a critical care for the world as it (in their perspectives) was supposed to be. The analysis also illustrates how members’ use of sources and references becomes a mere stylistic performance of authority, as the operative logic of Facebook not only enables but also constrains group interactions, reducing the members’ possibilities of having profound interactions and negotiations based on their memories and notions of the past. The article hereby contributes to the emerging research on digital memories in general, and memory work on Facebook in particular.

Denna 'Scandia introducerar' presenterar inriktningen 'digital memory studies' inom det större forskningsfältet 'memory studies', men även hur den berör digital historia och mediahistoria. 

Men and feminism is a contentious topic. In theoretical discussions as well as in previous studies, men and feminism have been described as an oxymoron, that being a man and a feminist is a border land position and that it entails experiences of so-called gender vertigo or gender limbo. Still, there are men who identify themselves as feminists and engage in feminist settings, parties and organizations. In this article, I aim to explore how masculinity is constructed and shaped within feminism. The article is based on qualitative interviews with nine young feminist men in Sweden. Using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology and the concepts of disorientation and reorientation, I analyse how the interviewees experience themselves as men and feminists and how they navigate within their feminist settings. The analysis illustrates that in contrast to previous research, the interviewees articulate an assuredness in their position as men and feminists. However, being a man and a feminist is still a somewhat disorienting position that promotes reflexive journeys through which the interviewees seek to elaborate a sensitive, perceptive and “softer” masculinity. Feminism can be seen as a way of doing masculinity, and the ways in which the interviewees (re)orient themselves in their feminist settings can be understood as processes of masculinity construction. These reorientations position the interviewees in the background of their feminist settings, where they carry out what I call political housekeeping and men-feminism. From this position, they also adopt a perspective of a theoretical as well as temporal distance and articulate themselves as actors in the history of feminism. Thus, the article highlights that feminist men can seek out a masculinity that is positioned in the background yet still experience themselves as subjects in the feminist struggle.

Vilken roll fyller ting och materialiteter i bruk av historia? Och, hur kan vi som forskare undersöka tingens roll i dessa sammanhang? Med utgångspunkt i dessa frågor och med inspiration från Actor-Network-Theory intresserar sig denna artikel för ting som aktörer i bruk av historia. En etnografisk metod bestående av observationer och intervjuer lyfts fram som ett fruktbart tillvägagångssätt. Dessutom diskuteras möjliga analytiska poänger av en sådan approach. Artikeln konkluderar att ett intresse för tingens roll i bruk av historia är ett fruktbart angreppssätt för att synliggöra de komplexa och ibland motsägelsefulla meningssystem som skapas då individer och grupper brukar historia.

This article deals with the significance and role of things and materialities in uses of the past. Taking an ethnographical fieldwork, conducted within the contemporary retro cultural mod scene, and inspiration from Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory as it’s starting-point, the article reflects upon how scholars interested in uses of the past can study things and materialities as actors in temporal networks. Also, it discusses analytical points that can be gained by this approach. The article argues that ethnographical observations and interviews can be used in tandem in a fruitful way when studying things as actors in uses of the past. Using such an approach, the article illustrates how things can function as an authenticating subcultural capital as well as a cultural substance giving stability to the temporal associations that the contemporary actors strive for. At the same time, things can be regarded as in-authenticating kitsch, which leads the actors to emphasise that the temporal associations with the past actually lies “beyond” material objects. The article thus show that this theoretical interest and methodological approach can reveal things and materialities as having complex and even contradictory roles in uses of the past.

"Retrospective modernists. On the significance of history for contemporary mods" This thesis studies the use and significance of history among contemporary mods in Sweden, that is, how the actors on the mod scene articulate and perform a sense of community with a specific past. Mod culture is first and foremost associated with the 1960s and the contemporary mods regard the 60s as the template and essence of their style. The actors thus become mods by enacting associations that stretch out over time, towards an imagined community that is based on the histories of mod cultures and mod styles of the past. Hereby I argue that the contemporary mod scene is an example of a retrospective trend through which the general interest in history as well as the use of history have increased. The thesis is based on a performative theory, inspired by Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory. History is thus regarded as makings-of-pasts-in-the-present. A qualitative ethnographical approach, based on interviews and observations, is used as the main method. Newspapers, magazines and fanzines from the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s are also studied. The four empirical chapters adress, in order, a differentiation between a Swedish and a British history of mod culture; the use of objects, such as vinyl records and tailor made suits, as a subcultural capital; how historically charged atmospheres at clubs and scooter rallies are evoked by networks of objects and human actors; and how maps of time and continuities are articulated as a way of dealing with and controlling temporal distances. Primarily, the thesis raise three themes in regards to the retrospective trend of the present. First, it illustrate how individuals and groups, by using and performing history, create meaningful boundaries for themselves. Retrospection thus functions as a way of gaining an existential presence and stability in an elusive present. Second, the use and performance of history seemingly narrows the distance towards the past. A central point in the thesis is, however, that the contemporary mods not only try to get closer to the desirable past, they also try to regain a distance and remoteness towards this past, in order to not reduce and deprive this past of its mystery and attraction. Thirdly, this regaining of the past’s remoteness is also a way of articulating this specific past as valuable. History is thus performed and used as a capital. I illustrate how this use of the past is performed in a selective way, through an ’us and them’ relationship, in which ”our own” history is elevated as holding the key to higher values and truths, while ”their” history is articulated as negative and problematic. The thesis thus contributes with new perspectives and knowledge on the significance and use of history in the present. It also contributes analytically and methodologically to subcultural studies, studies on history culture and to historical studies in general.