In this paper, we will show that collective memory work can help us recognize how we are always socialized not just to/by other humans but also to/by the rest of nature. Calling attention to personal memories in memory studies, as cognitive, emotional, and corporeal traces and sensations, such as pleasure or disgust, as well as habitual memory (Connerton, 1989, in Fox and Alldred, 2019), we outline the theoretical framework of ecosocialization (Keto & Foster, forthcoming 2021). The motivation for extending the focus onto ecosocialization comes from our wish to further problematize the anthropocentric view of life. From our perspective, socialization does not occur solely through the agency of humans; our social worlds are ontologically always more-than-human and are relationally produced in events of which memory is always already a part. Our participation in the world happens through/in our sensuous bodies and is based on an asubjective experience that happens before things fall to the categories of object and subject, of human and non-human. According to the framework of ecosocialization, perceptions, emotions and specifically embodied empathy can inform us ethically in the more-than-human world and eventually help us to form sustainable social worlds, both human and more-than-human. We draw on the Re-Connect / Re-Collect: Crossing the Divides through Memories of Cold War Childhoods project (2019-2021) to explore both how traces of ecosocialization are present in childhood memories and how remembering/forgetting as part of collective memory work (Davies and Gannon, 2006) is a productive force in shaping the present and future, sustaining continuities or contributing to social transformations, and attuning to worlds beyond human. We will first argue that by turning to those memories in which humans interact with non-human beings, such as other animals, plants, and natural environments, we can recognize ecosocialization. Second, we aim to demonstrate how remembering/forgetting of these interactions and the different qualities of memories might affect people's relations and actions with/in the more-than-human world. In this task, we are particularly interested in the affective and embodied aspects of memories. On this basis, we propose that memories of the more-than-human world have the affective capacities to bring more vibrant forms of co-existence to world-making before, and even after, any analytical reflections and hierarchical evaluations take place. Collective memory work thus can facilitate multiple sensibilities to emerge. Furthermore, we emphasize that recognizing ecosocialization in memory stories is critical in addressing the ecocrisis in a transformative manner.
