Arts-Based Approaches to Transitional Justice
Author(s):
Maya Weisinger
Publication Year:
2020
Type:
thesis
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Abstract:
In light of the growing number of hate crimes, anti-Semitism and a rise in xenophobia in Germany over the past decade, many scholars and practitioners believe that remembrance culture in Germany is fading. Errinerungskultur, or how societies deal with their historic pasts, is particularly important in Germany because of its ongoing reckoning with the events of the Holocaust. One way of dealing with the societal aftermath of such conflict is the process of transitional justice, which seeks to correct the wrongdoings of the past and actively build better social, cultural and reconciliatory processes into post-conflict societies. These processes can encompass a number of projects including war crimes trials, victim reparations and memorialization efforts. This research examines how arts-based memorialization projects impact errinerungskultur in Germany. An exploratory case study was conducted, in which primary and secondary data were collected from four different German, arts-based memorialization projects. Using the Aesthetic Perspectives framework (2017), the projects were analyzed by their ability to meet three selected criteria for arts-based change. The most significant results showed that projects that strategically implemented stakeholder and participant-oriented processes in the development phase were more impactful than those that did not. These results suggest that while there are a plethora of memorialization projects seeking to reach goals of transitional justice, those which can be developed with transparent and open collaboration among diverse groups of stakeholders lead to more impactful outcomes.
Citation (Chicago Author-Date):
Weisinger, Maya. 2020. “Arts-Based Approaches to Transitional Justice.” Master’s, Erfurt, Germany: Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. http://rgdoi.net/10.13140/RG.2.2.16314.00966.