Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract Value and structural transformations influenced by cultural turn, having taken place and grown in contemporary societies, have given a boom to memory studies. Cultural memory has turned into an important tool in producing discourses and representations and also in shaping the cultural identities of social groups and kind of communication people make with many of social institutions and structures. The connection between memory and popular culture and the role of cultural industries in the production, reproduction or the changes in cultural memories, also explain the strategic role memory plays in culture politics. The present paper aims to clarify the background, functions and the impacts of memory studies’ prevalence as an academic tradition, particularly within the area of cultural studies. In addition to providing important new agendas in the study of everyday life and popular culture, memory studies has important contributions in connecting humanities and social sciences and in offering a better understanding of the complexities that social and cultural processes display.