Memory Institutions in Europe: An Empirical Case for Network Ties beyond 'East/West' Divides

A major challenge accompanying the European Union's cultural and political expansion in the past decade is the embrace of postsocialist pasts. Crucial dividing lines over the interpretation of the years 1945 and 1989 exist both within these countries and between the European “West” and “East”, most prominently in the controversies and political tensions over the status of Holocaust memory versus the memory of stalinism and real-socialism. In order to understand recent developments in the formation of memory alliances, this paper maps out Western and Eastern European memory institutions with the tools of social network analysis. The study will present and discuss network tools that enable a fresh view on existing patterns of cooperation and recognition and challenge the „divide“ assumption in the literature. Far from being limited to a technical display, it will discuss a set of alternative explanations for the formation of institutional memory alliances within European societies.