Memory and Law on the Poles: Flags Between Manifestation and Contestation Among Social Upheaval

Abstract From the battlefields, flags made their way to other arenas. In protests, demonstrations and, most recently, social media, flags have become simple yet powerful ways of showing support or disapproval for recent events taking place around the world. The purpose of this paper is to take a close look into the ways flags are used in the present day when they have become modern monuments and reinterpreted objects of cultural heritage. In the first part of the paper, the authors explain how through history flags came to be linked to collective memory and national identity, ultimately becoming ersatz monuments, simplified symbols of a cause owing to their much easier visual employment and possibility of reinterpretation. The second part of the paper is devoted to the question of the use of flags as a way of manifestation of one’s identity. Focusing on the autonomous regions fighting for independence, the authors examine the ways in which flags of Scotland and Quebec are employed as a means of demonstrating distinctive regional-national identities. In the third part of the paper, the authors turn their attention to the ways flags are employed as a means of contesting those currently in power. Using the cases of Hong Kong, where the British colonial flag has been used in protests against the SAR authorities, and Iran, where the imperial flag has become a symbol of contestation of the current regime, the authors consider the continuous but everchanging popularity of the flag as a carrier of memory.