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Documents' memories: Enacting pasts and futures at the School for Individual Learning-in-Practice

Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, michalis.kontopodis{at}staff.hu-berlin.de

The study presented below has been an effort in examining the interdependence between time and memory practices, and in particular in studying how memory is related to the generation of pasts, presents and futures. Drawing on a one-year ethnographical research project in a secondary vocational school for students from sociocultural minorities in Germany, I examine how material-semiotic orderings determine how students' development and everyday action is remembered and forgotten, and at the same time what kind of futures are made possible for the students. On the ground of a relational-materialist approach, I analyze symmetrically the interaction between students and reports, files or questionnaires, and other actants. My analysis challenges the modern model of the arrow of time by suggesting that memory includes uncertainty, and that it is impossible to predict how pasts, presents and futures relate to each other.

Key Words: actant • ethnography • material-semiotic ordering • relational materialism • school

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Memory Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, 11-26 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1750698008097392


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Kontopodis, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?