Institutionelles Erinnern und Alltagserinnern

This article examines layers of temporality and normativity in the interactional reconstruction of recent events, using the example of control practices of Municipal Law Enforcement Services. It investigates memory processes concerning recent events and their interactive reconstruction, particularly emphasizing the underexamined aspect of reconstructing events from the recent past within the field of social memory research. In the realm of everyday organizational dynamics, it is imperative to scrutinize how recent events, such as parking a car, are recollected by both officials and civilians. Understanding the conflictual ramifications and delving into the different layers of temporality and normativity associated with such recollections offers valuable insights. Systematic procedures of reconstruction meet everyday practices of social remembrance. Using ethnographic data, the article will first show how systematic procedures of reconstruction are established. Secondly, the conflictual interactions between officials and civilians are analyzed as well as the resulting levels of normativity and forms of legitimation. The empirical data from the Municipal Law Enforcement Service of a major city in Germany demonstrates how the past is reconstructed through different methods and how fragments of everyday events are transformed into episodes of shared, collective memory.