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PLURALITY is a feature of the European societies of today. It impacts their understandings of themselves, ranging from political visions to public forms of remembrance. The CPPD would like to rethink these cultures of remembrance and develop strategies and visions for pluralistic remembrance. In pursuit of these goals, it pursues collaboration with artists, academics, journalists, and activists.
REMEMBRANCE CULTURE IS DYNAMIC. It changes over time and in the face of new societal and political constellations; but above all, it changes along with the bearers of memory. Institutions, communities, and individuals all contribute to this dynamic. Who remembers, when, where, and how they remember, and whose remembrance is made visible, i.e. through state subsidies, via exhibitions, memorials, or days of remembrance, all decisively contribute to the way in which a society narrates itself and who belongs to its We. The CPPD has taken on the task of critically re-examining this We and of pluralistically expanding that definition via the coalition’s work.
REMEMBRANCE CULTURE IS POLITICAL. It contains an interpretation of history, a construction of the present, visions for the future, and offers possible identities. Remembrance cultures make some groups and their perspectives visible, which means excluding certain other groups and their perspectives. This is why populists use cultures of remembrance to historically underpin their ideas about the present and future – from the invention of a supposed Judeo-Christian West to the questioning of commemoration of the Shoah.
RECOGNITION, VISIBILITY, SUPPORT. It is of vital importance to the development of cultures of remembrance that the diversity of European moments of remembrance be granted recognition, visibility, and support. This necessarily includes taking seriously the bearers of memory, who shape European society with their memories of flight, expulsion, violence, disenfranchisement, and survival. The CPPD thus also stands for a turning point, away from a remembrance culture geared towards the identity politics of a dominant monoculture and towards a recognition of the plurality of European societies and diverse cultures of remembrance.
The CPPD is a programme of DialoguePerspectives e.V., a European platform working to strengthen societal pluralism. Under the umbrella of DialoguePerspectives e.V., impact-oriented civil society programmes are developed and enacted that grapple with pressing topics relevant to shaping the present and future of society.
DialoguePerspectives e.V. contributes significantly to European understanding and cooperation, to strengthening and defending European civil society, and to shaping a pluralistic, democratic Europe grounded in solidarity.
