Memory-Place Networks: Revolutionary Heritage and Multi-cultural Belonging in Paris’s Belleville

Cultural geographers and memory studies scholars increasingly recognize that local places function as crucial nodes in transnational networks of meaning and identity. This paper develops the concept of “memory-place networks” to analyze the circulation, transformation, and contestation of memory in urban spaces. Such networks form through the layering of historical meanings and their reactivation across time, linking local practices to broader transnational narratives. I examine Belleville, a historically working-class neighborhood in northeast Paris long associated with revolutionary traditions and cultural diversity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how Belleville sediments past struggles, translates them into contemporary forms, and circulates them through cultural practices and urban spaces. By linking transnational memory studies with cultural geography, the paper advances an interdisciplinary framework for understanding how memory is both anchored in place and mobilized across scales. It argues that memory-place networks not only preserve geographies but also actively shape urban change, cultural identities, and the politics of belonging in a globalized city.