Dispositif Dynamics: State Narratives and Counter-Memories in the Fabric of Collective Memory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/hpt.2025.1.02Keywords:
Dispositif, State Narratives, Historiography, Counter-Memory, Michel Foucault, Collective Memory, Disciplinary PowerAbstract
Collective memory is never neutral: it’s constantly being shaped, curated, and challenged. The state decides which events are remembered, how they are presented, and whose voices are prioritized. Historiography is therefore not simply the recording of history; it’s embedded in the dispositif described by Michel Foucault (1980): the network of institutions, narratives, and practices that form public perceptions of the past. In this context, state-sanctioned narratives tend to shape a dominant, united memory that often confronts with counter-memories rise from marginal positions. Counter-memory question omissions, challenge “official” rewrites, and open up the field of competing interpretations.
This tension is maintained by the dispositif, which operates through mechanisms and discourses that not only shape social behavior but also regulate the production, circulation, and legitimacy of historical knowledge (Medina, 2011). Historiography, ensuring that the "official" version of history conforms to the ideological and political interests of those in power, becomes a subtle but powerful tool of governance. It reinforces some worldviews to a position of primacy and pushes others to the periphery, and transforms collective memory from a neutral archive of facts into a battlefield. In this field, historical narratives struggle for recognition, legitimacy, and continuity, some rising to the status of unquestioned truth, while others are marginalized, contested, or even erased, reflecting and amplifying the deep contradictions of the social and political order.
Digital technologies bring new dynamics to this context. Digital platforms enable marginalized voices to amplify counter-memories and challenge dominant narratives. These interventions often adopt archiving practices that resist institutional erasure. However, such digital spaces also comply with algorithmic control and commercial management, which determine what becomes visible and what remains in the shadows.
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