‘Everyday Life’ and the History of Dictatorship in Southern Europe
Metadatos
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SAGE
Fecha
2022-03-30Referencia bibliográfica
Ferris, K., & Hernández Burgos, C. (2022). ‘Everyday Life’ and the History of Dictatorship in Southern Europe. European History Quarterly, 52(2), 123–135. [https://doi.org/10.1177/02656914221085120]
Resumen
Dictatorships are of course put into effect from ‘on high’, by the dictators themselves
and the loyal individuals who support and enable them. However, in addition to being
decreed and imposed ‘from above’, dictatorships are also effectively enacted ‘from
below’, in the local spaces and everyday cultures inhabited and performed day-by-day
by the people who live through them. Local representatives of the dictatorial state –
party officials, civil servants, police officers, and so on – and those with semi-official
positions of trust – for example, doctors, midwives, university professors, teachers and
journalists – are charged with putting into practice the intended aims of the dictator,
but in the process of doing so must absorb and interpret these aims, leading to their
potential distortion or modification. Crucially, dictatorships are experienced subjectively
by the individuals who live within their borders, who also, through their
agency, actions, practices and attitudes, have some capacity – albeit heavily circumscribed
in many ways – to contribute to the making – and potentially to the unmaking
– of dictatorship. The basic ‘unit of experience’ of dictatorship, therefore, is locally
and subjectively bound.