Historical Sociology As Relational Memory. Part I

The critique of Eurocentric perspectives and methodological nationalisms characteristic of the bulk of mainstream social sciences and the absences thus (re)produced are hardly a new topic. Yet the increasing number of post- and decolonial contributions notwithstanding, examining and hence remembering national and linear histories is still privileged over the careful study of entangled histories and memories. From the global and relational perspectives on which this session rests, critical historical sociological research has the potential to counter the systematic omission of lives lived and lost among the globally marginalized, drawing connections across time and space to point out structural similarities and hidden continuities. What it means to actually do historical sociology as – or in dialogue with – relational memory studies, however, has not yet been discussed in a systematic way and shall be done in this session. Though thematically open, this session particularly welcomes theoretical reflections and empirical cases on one or more of the following themes: violence and resistance, mobilities and borders, gender and intersectionality, spatiality and temporality. Scholars reconstructing hitherto silenced entanglements between different world regions – and how sociology and related disciplines were complicit in these acts of silencing – are especially encouraged to apply. The format of this session consists of several papers to be presented and discussed in an engaging, productive way.