Palimpsestic Memorializations of World War II: A Visual Essay on Material Displacements and Discursive Struggles in the Estonian Memorialscape
Nico Carpentier
, Inês Moreira
, Ruth-Helene Melioranski
& Pille Runnel
Abstract
The article combines the genre of the visual essay with written-textual contextualizations, to analyse the attempts to reconstruct the Estonian memorialscape through the removal of Soviet memorials in the second part of 2022. Theoretically grounded in a theory of discursive-material entanglement and assemblage theory, the article investigates these attempts to fixate history, but also the resistance they generate, by paying attention to the human contestations (mainly through a politics of mourning) but also the material resistance and the recalcitrance of historical traces, through everyday life’s desacralizing routines and novel infrastructures, and material decay and neglect. The article ends with a reflection on the impossibility of discursive-material fixation, and on the mechanisms to transform the Estonian memorialscape in a more agonistic, participatory-dialogic and diverse space for the remembrance of World War II.
Keywords
assemblage theory; remembrance of World War II; theory of discursive-material entanglements
Carpentier, Nico, Moreira, Inês, Melioranski, Ruth-Helene, & Runnel, Pille (2023). Palimpsestic memorializations of World War II: A visual essay on material displacements and discursive struggles in the Estonian memorialscape. Comunicazioni Sociali, 2023(2), 219–245. https://doi.org/10.26350/001200_000187
The European Assemblage: A Discursive-Material Analysis of European Identity, Europaneity and Europeanisation
Nico Carpentier
Abstract
Different academic disciplines have deployed a diversity of approaches to European identity, Europeanism and Europeanisation, with often a strong emphasis on their material-structural components. This article uses a discursive-material analysis, that acknowledges the importance of the material, but places it in a non-hierarchical relation with the discursive. Grounded in an extensive literature review on European identity, Europeanism and Europeanisation, the article first highlights the discursive nature of these concepts, how they engage in struggles with other place-based identities and discourses, and how the articulations of these concepts themselves are deeply contingent, with a long history of essentialist articulations. In the second part, the material components of these three concepts (and in particular Europeanisation) are analysed, then allowing for a plea to understand Europe as an assemblage, where Europe is seen to be performed in always unique and contingent articulations of the discursive and the material.
Keywords
European identity, Europeanism, Europeanisation, being European, becoming European, discourse theory, new materialism, entanglement, assemblage
Carpentier, Nico (2021). The European assemblage: A discursive-material analysis of European identity, Europaneity and Europeanisation. Filosofija. Sociologija, 32(3), 231-239. https://doi.org/10.6001/fil-soc.v32i3.4495
Assemblages of Trust: A Discursive-Material Analysis of Czech Citizens’ Perceptions of Media and Democracy
Karolína Šimková
; Jeffrey Wimmer
Abstract
This study examines how trust and mistrust in media and democracy in the Czech Republic emerge from the interaction of discursive interpretations and material conditions. Drawing on Carpentier’s (2017) discursive-material framework and four focus groups (n=38), the study identifies three core dynamics: discursive constructions of (mis)trust shaped by perceptions of bias, corruption and political influence; material inequalities in access, literacy and communicative power that structure citizens’ sense of voice; and residual democratic anchors, such as elections and EU integration, that sustain selective trust. The analysis further shows how media pluralism, ownership concentration and digital platforms reconfigure trust repertoires in the Czech media environment. Across the four focus groups, trust emerged as a situated practice rather than a stable attitude, shaped by communicative infrastructures and everyday democratic experiences.
Keywords
Czech Republic, Democracy, Discursive-material approach, Mistrust, Trust in media
Šimková, Karolína & Wimmer, Jeffrey (2026). Assemblages of Trust: A Discursive-Material Analysis of Czech Citizens’ Perceptions of Media and Democracy. ESSACHESS, 19(37), 107-130. https://doi.org/10.21409/v4f9-1317
Art and strengthening democracy in Indonesia: the practice of Yogyakarta’s street art in the post-Soeharto era
Ali Minanto
Abstract
This article examines how street art in Yogyakarta articulates alternative discourses and contributes to strengthen democratic culture in post-Soeharto Indonesia. More than two decades after Reformasi, Indonesian democracy has shown signs of regression, including declining civil liberties, political polarisation, and persistent oligarchic power. Within this situation, street art emerges as an alternative medium for expressing social criticism and negotiating public space, addressing prosperity, food security, corruption, freedom of expression, and urban transformation. The study draws on the concepts of discursive-material practice, agonistic democracy, and spatial justice to examine how street art functions within contemporary urban politics. Using a qualitative ethnographic approach, including participant observation, visual documentation, and interviews, this article analyses selected street art projects in Yogyakarta through Discursive–Material Analysis (DMA). The findings demonstrate that Yogyakarta’ street art functions not only as visual expression but also as a discursive–material practice that challenges dominant narratives, reclaims urban and suburban spaces, and fosters civic engagement. This article argues that street art contributes to the strengthening of democratic culture by transforming everyday public spaces into sites of participation, contestation, and collective political expression in post-Soeharto Indonesia.
Minanto, A. (2026). Art and strengthening democracy in Indonesia: the practice of Yogyakarta’s street art in the post-Soeharto era. Visual Studies 0(0): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2026.2741652