Collective memory and crisis

The 2002 Bali bombing, national heroic archetypes and the counter-narrative of cosmopolitan nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID2398950
AuthorsBob West (0000-0002-0495-8625, Flinders University, corresponding author), Brad West
Year2008
Volume44
Issue4
Pages337-353
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1440783308097125
OpenAlexW2019945528
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited22

Utilizing a Geertzian cultural systems approach, Australian newspaper reporting of the 2002 Bali bombing is analysed to explore the dynamics of collective memory during crisis. With Australian footballers among the casualties in the terrorist attack, the traditional heroic figure of the Australian sportsman was widely used as a symbolic frame through which journalists, politicians and social commentators rationalized national suffering. The resulting promotion of an insular Australian nationalism inflamed public hostility towards Indonesia about the treatment of Australia's dead and injured. A counter-narrative of the attack emerged, however, with Australian tourists in Bali being mythologically aligned with First World War Anzac soldiers. In keying the bombing into the cultural logics of contemporary global travel and post-Fordist consumption, this collective memory provided a 'model for' the emergence of a more cosmopolitan nationalism that legitimized a return to everyday activities and allowed for the development of closer diplomatic ties with Indonesia

Collective memory · Media studies · Narrative · Nationalism · Newspaper · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Terrorism · The Symbolic · Asian Studies and History · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Law · Philippine History and Culture

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