Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025):
Research Article

Memory-Place Networks: Revolutionary Heritage and Multi-cultural Belonging in Paris’s Belleville

PDF
John Strait
Department of Environmental & Geosciences, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA
Paris
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.j.str.16.2.436.453
Categories

Published 2025-12-24

Keywords

  • Memory-place networks,
  • urban studies,
  • cultural geography,
  • transnational memory,
  • place,
  • Paris
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Strait, John. 2025. “Memory-Place Networks: Revolutionary Heritage and Multi-Cultural Belonging in Paris’s Belleville”. European Journal of Geography 16 (2):436-53. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.j.str.16.2.436.453.

Copyright (c) 2025 John Strait

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2025-10-10
Accepted 2025-12-21
Published 2025-12-24

Abstract

Cultural geographers and memory studies scholars increasingly recognize that local places function as crucial nodes in transnational networks of meaning and identity. This paper develops the concept of “memory-place networks” to analyze the circulation, transformation, and contestation of memory in urban spaces. Such networks form through the layering of historical meanings and their reactivation across time, linking local practices to broader transnational narratives. I examine Belleville, a historically working-class neighborhood in northeast Paris long associated with revolutionary traditions and cultural diversity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how Belleville sediments past struggles, translates them into contemporary forms, and circulates them through cultural practices and urban spaces. By linking transnational memory studies with cultural geography, the paper advances an interdisciplinary framework for understanding how memory is both anchored in place and mobilized across scales. It argues that memory-place networks not only preserve geographies but also actively shape urban change, cultural identities, and the politics of belonging in a globalized city.

Highlights:

  • Memory-place networks link local urban spaces to transnational flows of meaning.
  • Belleville demonstrates how revolutionary heritage adapts to multicultural change.
  • Memorial gentrification preserves cultural forms while displacing communities.
  • Democratic memorial practices create inclusive spaces for neighborhood solidarity.
  • Ethnographic methods reveal how memory circulates through everyday urban life.

 

PDF

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

  1. Alderman, D. H. (2002). Street names as memorial arenas: The reputational politics of commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. in a Georgia coun-ty. Historical Geography, 30, 99–120. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25624632
  2. Alderman, D. H., & Inwood, J. F. J. (2013). Street naming and the politics of belonging: Spatial injustices in the toponymic commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Social & Cultural Geography, 14(2), 211–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2012.754488
  3. Alderman, D. H., & Inwood, J. F. J. (2024). On the living Black atlas: Learning geospatial ethics from the African American freedom struggle. The Cartographic Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00087041.2023.2256131
  4. Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/modernity-at-large
  5. Assmann, J. (2011). Cultural memory and early civilization: Writing, remembrance, and political imagination. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511996306
  6. Beauchemin, C., Hamel, C., & Simon, P. (Eds.). (2019). Trajectories and origins: Survey on the diversity of the French population. INED Éditions. https://www.ined.fr/en/publications/editions/trajectories-origins/
  7. Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203820551
  8. Brasher, J. P., Alderman, D. H., & Inwood, J. F. J. (2017). Applying critical race and memory studies to university place naming controversies: Toward a responsible landscape policy. Papers in Applied Geography, 3(3–4), 292–307. https://doi.org/10.1080/23754931.2017.1362823
  9. Campbell, C. (2019). The Paris Commune in the French Revolution. Manchester University Press. https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526131363/
  10. Cheshmehzangi, A. (2021). Urban memory and cultural landscapes. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70241-9
  11. Christiansen, R. (1996). Paris Babylon: The story of the Paris Commune. Viking.
  12. Clark, J. P., & Martin, C. (Eds.). (2013). Anarchy, geography, modernity: Selected writings of Élisée Reclus. PM Press. https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=390
  13. Clerval, A., Fleury, A., & Humain-Lamoure, A. L. (2011). Belleville, un quartier parisien. In R. De Villanova & A. Deboulet (Eds.), Belleville, quartier populaire? (pp. 51–63). Créaphis.
  14. Corbillé, S. (2013). Immigration and urban change in Paris. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo13902176.html
  15. Cotte, M. (2021). Contemporary migration patterns in northeast Paris. Urban Geography, 42(3), 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1828772
  16. Dehaene, M., & De Cauter, L. (Eds.). (2008). Heterotopia and the city: Public space in a postcivil society. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203089415
  17. Domec, L. (2024). Youth organizing against Olympic displacement in Paris. Social Movement Studies, 23(2), 156–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2207451
  18. Drivaud, M., & Peretz-Julliard, C. (1984). Marchés et mémoires: Le marché de Belleville. Éditions du Seuil.
  19. Dwyer, O. J., & Alderman, D. H. (2008). Civil rights memorials and the geography of memory. Center for American Places. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1dnnc7g
  20. Erll, A. (2011). Memory in culture. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321670
  21. Favell, A. (1998). Philosophies of integration: Immigration and the idea of citizenship in France and Britain. Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26516-1
  22. Forster, L. C. (2021). Radical commemoration, the politics of the street, and the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune of 1871. History Work-shop Journal, 92(1), 83–105. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbab002
  23. Foucault, M. (1986). Of other spaces. Diacritics, 16(1), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/464648
  24. Hackworth, J. (2007). The neoliberal city: Governance, ideology, and development in American urbanism. Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801461203
  25. Halbwachs, M. (1992). The social frameworks of memory. University of Chicago Press.
  26. Harvey, D. (2008). The right to the city. New Left Review, 53, 23–40. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii53/articles/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city
  27. Hazan, E. (2018). The invention of Paris: A history in footsteps. Verso.
  28. Herrera, M. (2022). Transnational memory circuits in contemporary Europe. Memory Studies, 15(4), 789–806. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980211018746
  29. Hoelscher, S., & Alderman, D. H. (2004). Memory and place: Geographies of a critical relationship. Social & Cultural Geography, 5(3), 347–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464936042000252769
  30. Horne, A. (2007). The fall of Paris: The siege and the Commune 1870–1871. Pan Macmillan.
  31. Hübner, D., & Dirksmeier, P. (2023). Urban memory as process: Rethinking memorial landscapes. Urban Studies, 60(1), 98–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221105664
  32. Huss, E. (2024). Walking tours and transcultural memory in Berlin. Cultural Geographies, 31(2), 234–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740231158723
  33. Huyssen, A. (2003). Present pasts: Urban palimpsests and the politics of memory. Stanford University Press.
  34. Ingold, T. (2007). Lines: A brief history. Routledge.
  35. Jouy, P. (2014). Revolutionary graffiti in contemporary Paris. French Cultural Studies, 25(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957155814528373
  36. Kusenbach, M. (2003). Street phenomenology. Ethnography, 4(3), 455–485. https://doi.org/10.1177/146613810343007
  37. Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Blackwell.
  38. Lloyd, R. (2006). Neo-Bohemia: Art and commerce in the postindustrial city. Routledge.
  39. Low, S. M. (2017). Spatializing culture: The ethnography of space and place. Routledge.
  40. Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.24.100195.000523
  41. Marriman, M. (2014). Revolutionary memory. University of Virginia Press.
  42. Massey, D. (2005). For space. SAGE Publications.
  43. Meusburger, P., Heffernan, M., & Wunder, E. (Eds.). (2019). Cultural memories. Springer.
  44. Nora, P. (1996). Realms of memory. Columbia University Press.
  45. Pink, S. (2015). Doing visual ethnography (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
  46. Raulin, A. (2009). Belleville: Un quartier multiculturel à Paris. L’Harmattan.
  47. Rigney, A. (2012). The dynamics of remembrance: Texts between monumentality and mobility. In A. Erll & A. Rigney (Eds.), Mediation, remedia-tion, and the dynamics of cultural memory (pp. 29–45). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110267047.29
  48. Ross, K. (2015). Communal luxury. Verso.
  49. Rothberg, M. (2009). Multidirectional memory. Stanford University Press.
  50. Sallée, N., & Zúñiga, V. (2019). From Nuit Debout to neighborhood organizing. City, 23(4–5), 552–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2019.1683931
  51. Simon, P. (1992). Immigrant settlement patterns in French cities. International Migration Review, 26(2), 294–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/2547061
  52. Simon, P. (1998). Nationality and origins in French statistics. Population, 53(3), 437–466. https://doi.org/10.2307/1534771
  53. Simon, P. (1999). The Belleville cosmopolitan quarter in Paris. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2), 312–326. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00195
  54. Simon, P. (2003). France and the unknown second generation. International Migration Review, 37(4), 1091–1119. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2003.tb00170.x
  55. Simon, P. (2012). Collecting ethnic statistics in Europe. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(8), 1366–1391. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.607507
  56. Smith, L., & Eisenstein, W. (2016). Placememories. Memory Studies, 9(3), 267–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698015613969
  57. Smith, N. (1996). The new urban frontier. Routledge.
  58. Soja, E. W. (1999). Thirdspace. Blackwell.
  59. Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  60. Stott, N. (2015). Partial gentrification in a working-class neighborhood. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(6), 1127–1144. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12314
  61. Stott, N. (2021). Belleville: Between memory and change. University of Chicago Press.
  62. Strait, J. B. (2012). Experiencing blues at the crossroads. Journal of Geography, 111(5), 194–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2011.637228
  63. Strait, J. B., & Fujimoto-Strait, A. R. (2017). The mixed plate. The Geography Teacher, 14(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/19338341.2016.1210528
  64. Tastsoglou, E., & Petrinioti, X. (2011). Contextualizing multiculturalism in the French Republic. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 43(2), 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2011.0010
  65. Till, K. E. (2005). The new Berlin. University of Minnesota Press.
  66. Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process. Aldine.
  67. Tweed, T. A. (1997). Our Lady of the Exile. Oxford University Press.
  68. Vergunst, J. L. (2010). Rhythms of walking. Space and Culture, 13(4), 376–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331210374145
  69. Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford University Press.
  70. Wise, A., & Velayutham, S. (Eds.). (2009). Everyday multiculturalism. Palgrave Macmillan.
  71. Wüstenberg, J., & Sierp, A. (2020). Agency in transnational memory politics. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 28(3), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2019.1684254
  72. Yucesoy, E. U. (2013). Contested versus conquered spaces. Visual Anthropology, 26(5), 427–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2013.822379
  73. Zukin, S. (1995). The cultures of cities. Blackwell.