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Articles

Vol. 6 (2015): Pamięć a przestrzeń

The collective memory of a city. The case of Wrocław

  • Barbara Pabjan
Submitted
13 September 2016
Published
13-09-2016

Abstract

 

The collective memory of a city. The case of Wrocław

A city’s collective memory is the image of its past shared by its population. Th is image is an interesting element of the city’s identity. The specificity of Wrocław lies in the fact that this former German city was settled by a Polish population. This historical context makes Wrocław an intersting case study to analyse the process of forming the collective memory of a city. This study tries to answer the questions: what is the memory of a city and how the collective memory of a city is formed? How urban space creates the collective memory of a city? What is the role of social practices for the formation of the collective memory of a city? Moreover, issues specific to Wrocław are analyzed. Multiculturalism has become the official city image but is this image reflected in popular memory? What is the collective memory of Wrocław? The article is based on an empirical study that has been conducted on a sample of city residents 547.