Social Identity: Studies On Social Memory

In the context of cross-culture communication, we are confronted with the issue of better comprehension about cultural diversity and particularity. Discussion on "history" is one of the most significant components of human life. Within the realm of "history", people develop and practice something like identification, the sense of belonging and characteristics. Under both similarity and difference could only the humanity argue about identification or cultural identification. Thus, social memory does not only remembers the glory and pain of the social community, but also shapes and modifies the self-knowledge of the members in the community, which provides the individuals with references of rules and orientates them towards certain direction. From a pragmatic perspective, studies on "memory" or "social memory" are also important since we cannot engage into any social activities unless we know "who I am" or "who we are". The theory of social memory does provide a more or less postmodernism approach for social scientists, which may help them get rid of the constraint of current paradigms or patterns. Moreover, studies on social memory would prevent us from losing the insight of the essence and significance of memory or even culture, and simply directing to the conception of purely mental activities. However, in the studies of political science especially of comparative politics, the students do not pay enough attention to the theory of social memory. I would say the introduction of social memory would, to some extent, enhance the convincingness of some related concepts and theories like political culture. Meanwhile, political scientists seem to neglect the connection between memory and policy implement which could be a new spot in political science studies.