Geographies of memory, place and identity : intersections in remembering war and conflict

The terms memory, place and identity exemplify the core concerns of geographical inquiry – focusing on linkages between people, place, and culture. In this review, we hone in on the intersections between these three terms in the context of the remembrance of war and conflict. We seek to highlight how memory informs the construction and maintenance of identities (personal, national, and supranational) post-conflict and post-war, and how these identities are drawn upon and articulated through place. In doing so, we also explore how investigations of and in memory benefit from methodologies that engage with more-than-human and more-than-representational approaches. We take this stance because memory is a powerful force invoking experience, emotion, and an awakening of the senses. Its affective capacity moves beyond stoic representations of memory in stone and marble, for example; it can be smelt, touched, felt, imagined, tasted, and heard. Any one of these sensations has the agency to transport us not only to different times but to different places. With this in mind, we use this review to investigate how memory (re)produces and maintains the identity of places, communities, and nations. Understanding the links between memory, identity, and place also leads to a concomitant process of comprehending the influence of a politics of memory in the (re)production of both places and identities.