| Abstract | Maurice Halbwachs’ theory of memory is the obligatory point of departure for any sociological analysis of memory. I shall employ some of Halbwachs’ propositions to examine the relations between memory, the fount of all our actions, and the possibility of realising new action or, more specifically, an action that contradicts the idea that memory is conservative rather than innovative. Proceeding from Halbwachs’ analyses of changes in capitalist modes of management, I shall attempt to show that the production of the new always results from the introduction into a memory system of elements derived from another memory system. In other words, this article argues that the new is always the result of an original composition of elements derived from different collective memories. Rather than establish an opposition between tradition and innovation, the theory of collective memory shows that every pattern of behaviour and every new idea and representation contributes to the transformation of society as it was identified by Maurice Halbwachs.
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