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.

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