Impact case study database

House’s research has had an impact on public discourse, local communities and individuals, through his role as an advisor for politicians, community associations, individual memory activists, local historians, journalists and filmmakers and in the co-production of knowledge. Nationally, House’s retelling of little-heard stories of resilience, repression and solidarity has supported a more complex assessment of the plural experiences of colonialism, decolonisation and their legacies. Locally, it has provided a better understanding of decolonisation and reinforced community and individual pride.

(a) National level: French presidency and government. House’s research on Algiers, Casablanca and Paris has underlined the contribution of poor urban areas, groups and events during decolonisation and the importance of recognising the roles and experiences of local actors. House’s reputation as an expert on these issues led to his being consulted by the French Secretary of State for War Veterans and Memory about President Hollande’s role in the 19 March 2016 commemoration of those who died during decolonisation in North Africa. The Secretary of State met with House to seek his advice on whether the President should appear at this event at all, how to ensure inclusivity through the content and presentation of this high-visibility speech, and on official French memory policy more generally. At this meeting, House gave the Secretary of State a copy of [1] ( Paris 1961), and he confirms House’s ‘key’ role as advisor, while his policy advisor attests that House’s input ‘strongly influenced’ Hollande’s speech [B] . The Hollande speech as delivered [A] explicitly calls 17 October 1961 ‘the most brutal repression’, and includes the main points House made to the Minister regarding the need to recognise the complex legacies of colonial history and to incorporate the perspectives of ordinary Algerians and Moroccans [B]. House also underlined the necessity of more inclusive histories when invited by the Algerian Ministry of Culture to speak at the 2014 Algiers Book Fair, the largest annual cultural gathering in Algeria, and when talking at the Museum for Mediterranean Civilizations (MUCEM) in Marseille at a high-profile 2018 event in honour of public historian Benjamin Stora attended by France’s Minister of Higher Education. House’s many other public talks, as well as his extensive interventions across the international media (Algeria, France, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey, UK, USA) have had ‘strong impact’ [C]. They have consistently foregrounded the agency of poor urban communities often written out of dominant histories and memories, and have highlighted the legacies of colonial repression and its spatial dynamics [D].

(b) Community level: civil society associations. A wide range of community-based history / memory retrieval projects have used House’s research. His work has evidenced the role played by their areas during the struggle for independence, thus helping them to work for symbolic reparations and recognition, alongside promoting urban heritage projects. For example, he has worked with Initiative urbaine ( https://www.facebook.com/Association-Initiative-Urbaine-102754409816012/), a largely youth-based organisation located in Carrières Centrales, also known as Hay Mohammadi, a post-industrial suburb of Casablanca (population approximately 50,000). House sent this group publications [3] and [5] and met with them to advise on their district’s social and political history. As a result, Initiative urbaine’s founder and president attests that they have undergone ‘an historical and cultural awakening’ allowing him to see the ‘bright side’ to his home area otherwise often known for alleged criminality. This change has led to plans, with which House is closely associated, for an urban heritage project that will serve locally as a ‘lever for (urban) development’, including the association’s creation of a neighbourhood museum. This activity has also reinforced inter-generational community solidarity, as the members of Initiative urbaine interact with older generations in pursuit of their hidden – and positive – local history [E].

(c) Individuals (Algeria, France, Morocco). Between 2013 and 2020, House worked to share his research findings and materials, publications [1-5] and advice with local residents, community historians, memory activists and other actors, thereby providing significant resources and evidence for their work. Beneficiaries included residents from Mahieddine, a social housing estate built on a former shantytown in central Algiers (population approximately 10,000). For one, a local memory activist, House’s arrival was ‘a true gift’ [F]. He is committed to improving perceptions of Mahieddine, and has used House’s expertise to campaign with others to have a public building dedicated to local wartime nationalist hero, Badeche: guillotined in 1957, but largely forgotten since. House has also worked closely with a former political prisoner and author of newspaper articles on Carrières Centrales shantytown, his birthplace. Through the provision of archival material, House allowed this person to ‘sharpen’ his existing understanding of the history of Carrières Centrales – about which he regularly speaks locally and in documentaries. He feels that House ‘instigated’ his participation in cultural exchanges between young people in Casablanca and the Paris region regarding Hay Mohammadi’s history, and that House is someone whose input was 'needed' and whose work ‘passes on our memory’ [G].

Indeed, House’s impact on individuals was achieved not merely through the dissemination of existing research findings, but also through a research process involving the co-production of knowledge with people whose areas have suffered social stigmatisation, memorial marginalisation and (often) repression. Including such residents as interviewees and co-producers of their own local history empowers them, makes them feel ‘honoured’ [H] and enhances their awareness of and pride in their own past. According to one locally-based historian who has published on Carrières Centrales, organises community history events there with Initiative urbaine, and with whom House has conducted interview-based fieldwork, House’s interviewees were left with ‘a profound sense’ of Carrières Centrales’ role in ‘national struggle and armed resistance’ going beyond official and limiting versions of this past (1944-1956) in Morocco. This produced ‘feelings of comfort and pride [ amongst interviewees] and of the need for more interest in their local history’ and ‘a change of image for the female residents’ [I]. The local memory activist from Mahieddine also refers to the ‘pride’ that local residents feel when House evokes Mahieddine urban area in his public talks that highlight ‘the distinctive qualities of these humble people from an area of Algiers that many from Algiers itself don’t even know exists’ [F]. A professional historian of Algeria and France who has undertaken fieldwork with House in Mahieddine has confirmed that House’s research process constitutes ‘a rare occasion for actors to speak (out) and express their experiences, allowing for the writing of a different history – that of their participation in the independence struggle’. Consequently, House’s work has had a ‘key impact in freeing up expression for these subaltern actors’ [J].