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Jonathan M. Acuff, Spectacle and Space in the Creation of Premodern and Modern Polities: Toward a Mixed Ontology of Collective Identity, International Political Sociology, Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 132–148, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-5687.2012.00155.x
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Abstract
Much recent work on culture and identity in International Relations (IR) has emphasized the causal role of ideas and institutions. I articulate a broader socialization process for collective identities via material elements of identity construction. I argue that combined with rituals and linked to myths and symbols, material representations of culture such as monuments and architecture form the collective memories of polities in a similar manner to the socializing effects of educational institutions and vernacular literature. I illustrate these claims with a comparison of materiality and praxis elements of identity construction in imperial Rome and late-modern Austria–Hungary, with concluding analysis of the role of material culture in the future of “European” identity in the EU.