Expert memories: the professional construction of the past and the mnemonic making of occupations

Abstract

This article introduces the special issue on occupations and memory in organizations. To foster increasing collaboration from scholars from both fields, we offer a general argument connecting memory and occupations on two levels. At the societal level, we show how memory experts, such as historians, archivists, and museologists, have played a fundamental role in the development of modernity and the emergence of our contemporary historical consciousness. At the occupational level, we argue that occupations are transgenerational communities maintained through various practices and technologies of memory whose legitimacy and professional status increasingly depend on their ability to cultivate both practical and historical memory. We further explore three related topics covered by the papers from this special issue: expert and memory work, occupational and mnemonic communities, and professional and mnemonic projects. At the end, we identify three promising themes for future research: the negotiation of boundaries and resources among communities; the interaction between technology, expertise, and memory; and the occupational ethics and responsibility towards past actions and memories.

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