Abstract
Following the post-2011 Syrian conflict, Sweden became one of the primary European destinations for displaced Syrians, resulting in significant demographic and cultural shifts within its urban centers. This study investigates how Syrian refugees in urban Sweden utilize digital platforms to construct, preserve, and negotiate collective memory and commemorative practices following forced displacement. Drawing on an 18-month multi-sited digital ethnography combined with 34 in-depth interviews across Stockholm, Malmö, and Södertälje, we examine the spatial and temporal intersections of physical exile and digital mourning. The findings reveal that digital commemorative platforms—spanning Facebook memorial groups, Instagram visual archives, and WhatsApp solidarity channels—function as vital counter-hegemonic archives that challenge official political narratives of the Syrian war while fostering trans-local solidarity. These digital spaces enable displaced individuals to navigate the dual pressures of local integration within Swedish society and the emotional imperative of homeland remembrance. Furthermore, the research highlights an intergenerational shift in digital memory work, where younger refugees reframe digital postmemory to articulate hybrid identities. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that digital commemorative practices are not merely reactive mechanisms of grief, but active socio-spatial strategies that re-map diasporic belonging and agency within Scandinavian urban landscapes.
