Commodification and affective maintenance in commemoration places

Purpose This paper aims to explore practices that over time imposed, maintained or changed existing spaces into places of commemoration. Design/methodology/approach We analyze through a qualitative heuristic approach how different practices change spaces into places of commemoration via illustrative vignettes that critically explore the commodified affective practices cities, organizations and citizens use to organize and maintain commemoration places. Findings Individuals and groups produce and over time maintain commemoration places by materially and discursively manipulating the memorial force of places through practices of affective maintenance. Research limitations/implications Commodification and “affective maintenance” are practices that explain how spaces become and remain commemoration places over time. The process through which memory is socially organized affectively in space over time also for economic purposes promises broader insights on the value of memory, placed in museums collections and luxury goods. Practical implications Planners of commemoration places may better understand the work of affective maintenance required to manage and develop commemoration places, and managers of private or public spaces may consider the barriers and affordances to repurposing existing spaces to create new places. Social implications Citizens may understand how to reappropriate public space and resist undesirable attempts of private corporations that commodify commemoration places, especially those funded also by public funds in public spaces. Originality/value The originality of the paper resides in comparing and contrasting different types of commemoration places to jointly explore different affective and commodification practices at play in constituting places of commemoration in public or private spaces.