Article,
Post-holiday memory work: Everyday encounters with fridge magnets
Affiliations
- [1] University of Liverpool [NORA names: United Kingdom; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [2] Bournemouth University Business School [NORA names: United Kingdom; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [3] Manchester Metropolitan University [NORA names: United Kingdom; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [4] Copenhagen Business School [NORA names: CBS Copenhagen Business School; University; Denmark; Europe, EU; Nordic; OECD]
Abstract
While souvenirs have generated considerable interest within tourism research, less attention has been paid to their post-holiday ‘afterlife’. Utilising perspectives from memory research and more-than-representational theory, this paper focuses on interactions with a ubiquitous souvenir: the fridge magnet. Drawing on semi-structured interviews we illustrate how, because of their embeddedness within everyday domestic rhythms, magnets are active agents in the stimulation of post-holiday memory work. We show how magnets work to generate and protect memories, triggering a diversity of (usually positive) emotional and affective responses. They can also be associated with ambivalent memories; with their role sometimes being more about forgetting. Although being seemingly banal objects, fridge magnets have a complex capacity to affect everyday life long after a holiday ends.