Studying ‘décret mémoire’ of the French Community of Belgium.

On the 13th March 2009, Belgium’s French Community (currently named the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF)) parliament, adopted the “décret mémoire” (decree of remembrance). This deed shows Belgian public authorities’ will to mark their presence in the memorial field. The decree organizes the recognition and the financing of multiple actors and institutions by the authorities, through a structure and a hitherto unseen way of functioning. Among its activities, the decree organizes yearly calls for projects, whose recipients are non-profit-making organizations and educational institutions that are either organized or subsidised by the WBF.

The organisation set in place by the decree of remembrance appears to be a “political use of the past”. That means that some past events are chosen and promoted to give meaning to the individual memory, in a collective intent. This way of doing comes from the political will to organize the representation of one common past, aiming to bring out themes that carry particular values.

Consequently, is it possible to study the power that the decree actually gives to the public authorities? Does it allow them to constrain or to influence other actors of their memory field? If that is the case, how could it be possible to demonstrate it? We suggest trying to find an answer to these interrogations through a case study concerning the 2014 calls for projects of the year.