Diaspora as Process: (De)Constructing Boundaries

Abstract

This article discusses different conceptualisations of diaspora, as bounded, unbounded and as a process, in order to help highlight the useful role diaspora can play in explorations and (de)constructions of nation-state, community and identity boundaries. There are two main ways in which diaspora has been theorised. The first theorises diaspora in relation to defined homeland-orientated ethnic groups and identities and the second theorises diaspora in relation to fluid, non-essentialised, nomadic identities. This article argues that it is necessary to look beyond such conceptualisations of diaspora as nomadic/fluid (unbounded) or homeland-centred/ ethnic-religious (bounded). This article advocates a flexible use of diaspora as process that is able to examine the dynamic negotiations of collective, strategic and politicised identities based around constructions of 'sameness' and the homeland, as well as individual identities that are malleable, hybrid and multiple. It stresses that it is within this notion of diaspora as process that geographers, with their emphasis on place, space and time, have an important role to play.

Comparing and theorizing state–diaspora relations

“…Rather than fixed social entities, diasporas are now recognized as constituency-building projects initiated and led by political entrepreneurs in origin states and abroad (Brubaker, 2005;Dufoix, 2008;Mavroudi, 2007;S€ okefeld, 2006;Vertovec, 1997;Waldinger, 2008). Government agencies in the origin state may play an important role in galvanizing groups to think of themselves as a loyal diaspora.…”

“…Different writers differ not only in their understandings of which geographical locations and how many subsequent generations form part of a specific diaspora, but also whether diaspora should be seen as a type of social morphology at all, rather than a form of consciousness or a process of ethnogenesis (e.g. Dufoix, 2008;Mavroudi, 2007;S€ okefeld, 2006;Vertovec, 1999).…”

The 503 Days Of “El Piquete De Londres”: A Diasporic Space And Moment

“…In the context of a Latin American festival in Machynlleth, Wales, she speaks margins, were contested (Blunt 2003;Blunt and Dowling 2006, 196-252), as were the affective affiliations that are often presumed by migration scholarship to count in migrant home-making-for example, kin, ethnic community, the Nation (for a critical approach see Fortier 2003;Cvetkovich 2003, 121-124;Ahmed 1999). Moreover, the processes involved in el piquete converse with a conceptualization of diaspora and diasporic belonging as "a process" (Mavroudi 2007), which, however, is "situated" through affective, symbolic, and embodied connections (Brah 1996, 184;Ahmed, Fortier, Castañeda, and Sheller 2003;Knowles 2003;Fortier 2000). But there is something else.…”

A diasporic right to the city: the production of a Moroccan diaspora space in Granada, Spain

“…It is features of 'community' , collective ethnic identity continuation, connection with a 'faraway' homeland and hybridity/ mixing that are often considered to make a migrant diasporic (Adamson & Demetriou, 2007;Kenny, 2013). Therefore, migrants are not inherently diasporic; rather, diaspora is a process (Mavroudi, 2007) and is formed by migrants, or the descendants of migrants, enacting a diaspora stance (Brubaker, 2005). Moreover, diaspora can give the impression of a homogenised population, but they invariably contain significant in-group differences, such as 'race' , gender, sexuality and age (Anthias, 1998;Brah, 1996).…”