Toward a geography of memory: Geographical dimensions of public memory and commemoration

This article focuses on contemporary research in geography on issues of public memory and commemoration - the ways in which discourse of the past is constructed socially and expressed materially in landscape, public memorials, and heritage sites. Interest in these sites has grown rapidly because they both reflect-and expose for study - social tensions, political realities, and cultural values. Compared to work in other disciplines, geography offers spatial, locational, and material perspectives on the patterns and dynamics of commemorative practices. Much attention has focused on the political dynamics of memory, but recent research has also revealed much about the chronology of commemoration, the interplay of social and elite groups in defining commemorative practices, and recent trends that expand the range of events and people remembered.