Narratives in Motion: Communication, Contestation, and the Politics of the Past Beyond Transition

Abstract

Bringing together studies of historical commissions, mnemonic populism, democratic backsliding, and institutional abuse inquiries, this panel examines how narratives of historical injustice are produced and contested across political and public spheres in both transitional and non-transitional contexts. Rather than treating truth-finding and memory work as settled outcomes, the panel foregrounds communication as a dynamic and politically charged process shaped by mediation, audiences, and power. Starting from the premise that reckoning with conflicted pasts is essential for understanding the present and imagining more just futures, the panel explores how narratives travel through media, politics, and civil society, and how their meanings shift in the process. It examines how accounts of the past are appropriated, resisted, or reworked through communicative practices mobilise moralised histories to consolidate or challenge authority and legitimacy. Collectively, the contributions speak to debates on narrative authority, mediation, and the ethics of communicating the politics of the past.

Title	Details
The Afterlives of Historical Commissions: How Official Discourses Travel Through the Political and Public Sphere	View Paper Details
Historical Justice and Mnemonic Populism: The Iron Stake Narrative in Democratic South Korea	View Paper Details
Reckoning Without Transition: Truth, Trust, and Survivor Voices in Non-Recent Institutional Abuse Inquiries	View Paper Details
Never-Ending Story? Contesting Memory and Accountability in Turbulent Times	View Paper Details