Disentangling Memories. Complex (Be)longings and Social Categories: Complex (Be)longings and Social Categories

This presentation analyses the complex workings of social
categories in constructions of (be)longing in memories of young
university students in Bolivia and Peru. In a methodology course the
participants explored how socio economic and socio cultural differences
had affected the lives of the participants and how meaning making
connected to social categories express themselves in language.
Two different methodological approaches were in play; Memory Work
(Haug 1987, 1992, Haug et al 1994, Hee Pedersen 2008, Hyle et. al 2008,
Wiederberg 2011) and Collective Biographies (Davies 2000a, 2000b,
Davies & Gannon 2006).
Memory-work is a collaborative methodology which has a lot to offer
when it comes to understanding the processes through which we make
sense of the social and constructed feelings of (be)longing. The method
integrates an explicit wish for change of dominant social structures, while
it at the same time collaboratively produces insights into how we as
individuals participate in the productions of oppressive relations in
relation to powerful social categories. The question, which propelled the
two stories analysed was: Describe a situation where you for the first
time became aware of yourself belonging to a specific social or racial
group.
(Be)longing to a specific gendered and radicalised body constitutes in
the analysis of these stories an excellent “location,” from which to
analyse how socio/cultural and socio/economic categories like class,
nationality and age intersect with one another and consequently widen
and/or diminish possibilities for legitimate belonging to society (Anthias,
2005:17).
Each memory becomes an opportunity to collectively critically
deconstruct naturalised processes of interpretation. It invites the
participants to explore human dialogues, mediated by texts, as a way to
produce insights and consciousness about the socio-cultural impact of
sense making processes.