Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Remembering the building blocks of socialism: the material and mediatised (n)ostalgia of East German plastic construction toys
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. (DIGSUM)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9572-5922
2024 (English)In: The Routledge handbook of archaeology and plastics / [ed] Genevieve Godin; Þóra Pétursdóttir; Estelle Praet; John Schofield, Routledge, 2024, p. 371-384Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

As LEGO was being introduced to West Germany in the mid-1950s, similar plastic construction toy systems started to be produced in East Germany by companies including PEBE. While these companies no longer exist, their products remain part of the material culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Subsequently, and like many other GDR products, they have engendered specifically East German forms of nostalgia otherwise referred to as ‘Ostalgie’ (a portmanteau of the German words for east (ost) and nostalgia (nostalgie)) or, in its anglicised form, ostalgia. Adopting a contemporary archaeological perspective, this chapter draws on the notion of object itineraries in order to trace and track these companies and their products across time and thus explore the material and mediatised forms of (n)ostalgia that circulate around the remnant plastic building blocks of GDR state socialism. First it traces the history of PEBE but also that of another company PLASTECK (later FORMO) and their products. Secondly it discusses the politics of play surrounding these products initially as toys that contributed to the socialisation of children in the GDR and then later as heritage and material foci of ostalgia which indexed political distinctions between East and West Germany. Thirdly it follows these companies and their products onto social media in order to track the forms of mediatised (n)ostalgia and autobiographical memory that are starting to circulate around them online.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024. p. 371-384
Series
Routledge handbooks
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology) Archaeology Media and Communication Studies
Research subject
media and communication studies; Sociology; Archaeology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-231968DOI: 10.4324/9781003272311-25ISI: 001381436700025Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85210714733ISBN: 9781032223728 (print)ISBN: 9781032223742 (print)ISBN: 9781003272311 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-231968DiVA, id: diva2:1914489
Projects
MemoriUMAvailable from: 2024-11-19 Created: 2024-11-19 Last updated: 2026-02-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Merrill, Samuel

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Merrill, Samuel
By organisation
Department of Sociology
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)ArchaeologyMedia and Communication Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 210 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf