Belgium : too many pasts, too many memories?

Abstract: Nations share (the idea of) a common past. What about Belgium? Does state reform goes along with diverging memories about the Belgian past? Is this a part of the Belgian problem? Or is it a wider phenomenon of the falling apart of collective national identities in a globalizing world? Must we care about a common national memory? According to the French historian Pierre Nora we are witnessing a world-wide upsurge in memory. Belgium is no exception. New museums are being built; Heritage and Open Monuments days are a huge success; heritage sites and living history events even more so; e... Mehr ...