Traditionally, the term ‘diaspora’ (from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) referred to the dispersion of the Jewish people from ancient Israel. It had a pejorative connotation, associated...

Le paradigme des diasporas peut-il répondre à la nécessité de prendre en compte les changements opérés dans le champ des migrations humaines? Elles s'inscrivent au coeur d'une dialectique entre la dispersion des migrants au sein de sociétés pluralistes et le maintien de liens concrets et spirituels avec les sociétés d'origine. Les sciences sociales ont privilégié longtemps le paradigme de la diversité. De même, l'opposition de l'option multiculturaliste à la « sociologie de l'intégration » a enfermé les débats dans une (...) fausse alternative. L'expérience des diasporas, à commencer par l'exemple juif, entre dispersion à l'infini et maintien d'une référence commune, montre que les figures migrantes évoluent aux marges d'identités prédéfinies.The paradigm of diaspora can answer the need to take into account the changes in the field of human migration? They are at the heart of a dialectic between the dispersion of migrants in pluralistic societies and maintaining links with practical and spiritual societies of origin. The social sciences have long favored the paradigm of diversity. Similarly, opposition to multiculturalism option "sociology of integration" has locked the discussion in a false alternative. The experience of diaspora, starting with the example Jewish dispersion between infinity and maintaining a common reference, the figures show that migrants move to the margins of predefined identities. (shrink)

Modern universities have largely been portrayed in the literature as an extension of nation building projects, focusing on the state as primary actor. This article challenges such presuppositions by separating ‘nation’ and ‘state’ and with a critical appropriation of diasporic subjectivity and institutions from a comparative historical perspective. The article has four themes: ‘diaspora’, ‘ethnic internationalism’, ‘stateless nations’ and ‘internationalisation’ in higher education (IHE). It illustrates these themes and their interrelationships by considering Koreans in the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945) and (...) Jews during the British Mandate for Palestine (1920–1948) and construing them as stateless nations. These two historical cases illustrate how higher education was linked to ethnonational diasporas and internationalisation in the absence of a supportive state apparatus. The paradox is that ethnic nationalism was not only compatible but often overlapped with ethnic internationalism in higher education. The conclusion of this comparative study suggests the implications for the twenty-first century and the important role of diaspora in processes of IHE then and now. (shrink)

The numberless unprecedented situations attached today to the concept of transnational diaspora arise the debate of whether or not this phenomenon signals a new era. Our own contention is that it does represent a factor of new kinds of heterogenization of both the societal reality and of the diasporas themselves, as worldwide entities. It is in this dialectic perspective that we describe transnational diasporas as causes of discontinuity in our world and point out to the qualitative change in (...) the social fabrics that they represent. Among other aspects, dual or threefold homeness that is bound to the transnational condition signifies for diasporans a slipping away from the totalistic character of the commitment and view of the nation that the nation-state requires of its citizens. When viewed in its multiplicity, the cohabitation under the same societal roof of a priori alien socio-cultural entities yields a configuration that is not uniform in every setting, but which still responds in its essentials to the new reality experienced by many a contemporary society.To illustrate this approach, this paper compares four well-known contemporary transnational diasporas—namely, the Muslim, African, Hispanic and Chinese. (shrink)

Diaspora, considered as a context for insights into Jewish identity, brings together a lively, interdisciplinary group of scholars in this innovative volume. Readers needn't expect, however, to find easy agreement on what those insights are. The concept "diaspora" itself has proved controversial; _galut, _the traditional Hebrew expression for the Jews' perennial condition, is better translated as "exile." The very distinction between diaspora and exile, although difficult to analyze, is important enough to form the basis of several essays in this fine (...) collection. "Identity" is an even more elusive concept. The contributors to _Diasporas and Exiles _explore Jewish identity—or, more accurately, Jewish identities—from the mutually illuminating perspectives of anthropology, art history, comparative literature, cultural studies, German history, philosophy, political theory, and sociology. These contributors bring exciting new emphases to Jewish and cultural studies, as well as the emerging field of diaspora studies. _Diasporas and Exiles _mirrors the richness of experience and the attendant virtual impossibility of definition that constitute the challenge of understanding Jewish identity. (shrink)

Les diasporas d'intellectuels expatriés qui émergent aujourd'hui en réponse à l'exode de compétences du sud vers le nord constituent une option nouvelle, prometteuse mais exigeante. Le monde francophone, espace de circulation de savoirs et de leurs détenteurs, constitue un milieu propice à ces dynamiques originales. Pour les réaliser, une politique éclairée et une gestion stratégique fine sont requises. La première a débuté avec succès; la seconde est maintenant indispensable.Expatriate diasporas of intellectuals that are emerging today as an answer (...) to the brain drain from the South to the North are shaping a new and promising though demanding policy option. The French speaking world, an area of in which knowledge and intellectuals circulate, is thus a favourable milieu for these original dynamics. To develop these dynamics an enlightened policy and good strategic management are required , The former has already started successfully but the latter remains essential. (shrink)

In this essay, we will follow Tang Junyi’s lead in exploring issues related to Chinese diaspora and Chinese philosophy. While we largely endorse Tang’s call for overseas Chinese to establish themselves in their adopted lands, we will argue for a more nuanced view on the identity of Chinese people outside China: they are not marginalized individuals scattered out of “homeland” China, rather they are people legitimately established in their own respective countries. In this connection, we will also advance a view (...) of future Chinese philosophy as a world philosophy that takes roots in China as well as in the world at large. In our view, although Chinese immigrant thinkers in the past century have played a major role in promoting Chinese philosophy outside China, the importance of such a role is likely to decline along with the success of Chinese philosophy becoming a world philosophy. (shrink)

The practice of ‘diaspora missions’ is necessitated by the demographic change in the United Kingdom in the 21st century. In this paper, the ‘diaspora mission strategy’ is proposed in response to such demographic change.

Durante o período colonial, milhares de artefatos culturais foram levados do continente africano pelos europeus. Nos últimos anos, a restituição de bens culturais tem chamado atenção de teóricos, governos, órgãos internacionais e regulamentações jurídicas. Contudo, há pouca informação sobre a forma como essa realidade se apresenta e é discutida. Este ensaio é uma proposta de investigação sobre a restituição dos bens culturais retirados no contexto do colonialismo, considerando a relação de países europeus com países africanos. Trata-se de analisar a constituição (...) do regime internacional de proteção e restituição do patrimônio cultural, seus princípios, limites e possibilidades, tendo em vista alguns casos de processos restitutivos realizados a partir da década de 1990 e suas narrativas. Em meio aos debates acerca da descolonização das relações entre ex-metrópoles e ex-colônias e os efeitos ainda presentes do colonialismo, este trabalho põe em marcha uma proposta teórico-metodológica que aposta no papel da memória e sua potência no que toca ao direito humano à cultura e à identidade. Palavras-chave: Bens Culturais. Decolonialidade. Restituição. (shrink)

This paper looks at some of the missiological implications of the history, presence and ministry of diaspora Christians in Singapore and Malaysia in the 19th and early 20th century. More particularly, it considers how their lives and legacy tied together Europe, China and Southeast Asia in mission. It suggests that the global movement of people, ideas and faith is not new, but has ridden the waves of globalization for centuries if not millennia.

Diante da crise dos refugiados observada na Europa nos últimos anos, a ideia de diáspora entrou novamente em evidência. Produções acadêmicas e pesquisas sobre a temática ganharam visibilidade, em um processo que, apesar dos acontecimentos recentes, já vem em crescente há décadas. Torna-se, assim, uma necessidade a observação do estado da arte, uma discussão sobre os avanços e os limites que a abordagem das diásporas encontrou nesses últimos anos e, particularmente, as possibilidades que ela nos reserva. Epistemologicamente, portanto, é necessário (...) lançar uma visão crítica sobre as principais abordagens e sobre os resultados das pesquisas sobre as diásporas, levantando debates e perspectivas e avanços nesse campo. O impacto e as reflexões que a temática nos abre também se tornam objeto deste ensaio, que, não pretendendo esgotar a produção acerca das diásporas, apresenta e revisita o núcleo duro dessas pesquisas. (shrink)

Taking a critical perspective on the loss of analytical categories, this article discusses the enormous proliferation of Diaspora concepts in social sciences at large, and in particular with regard to discourses on Muslims in Europe. In the era of international migration, the experience of homelessness, deriving from the loss of the myth of religio-cultural and ethno-linguistically singularity in contemporary societies, seems to become an universal phenomenon. Questions of home and belonging are key issues in the current discourses on Diaspora which, (...) since the turning point of 1989, developed aggressively beyond those academic disciplines concerned with religion. (shrink)

This article elaborates a theoretical framework for making sense of Tibetans in Tibet who live as ‘exiles in their own homeland’. Placing questions of mobility at the centre of anthropological approaches to diaspora, it subjects ‘the fact of movement’ to critical scrutiny. In so doing it calls into question three fundamental assumptions of recent work in both ‘new mobilities’ and the study of diaspora more broadly: first, that people move and territory does not; second, that ‘place’ and ‘movement’ are different (...) sorts of things, and clearly distinguishable; and, third, that movement takes places only in Euclidean space. Beginning by placing recent Tibetan experiences of exile and diaspora in comparative context, it then works through recent deconstructions of the boundary between movement and place, a critique of Western ethno-epistemologies of movement, and Law and Mol’s work on social topology as theoretical orientations that might allow us to make sense of mobile homelands and diasporas in situ. (shrink)

From the 1870s to the 1920s Poor Law institutions in England developed from destinations of last resort to significant providers of health‐care. As part of this process a general professionalisation of Poor Law work took place. The change was facilitated by wider social, philosophical and political influences in nineteenth century England. The introduction of trained nurses into the Poor Law was part of a diaspora of both ideas and people from voluntary institutions and organisations. Unrecognised in 1834, nurses eventually became (...) the most numerous class of workhouse officers. This was not accomplished without dispute and acrimony. As a group and as individuals nurses were often at the centre of disputes. Utilising a social history framework and drawing on contemporary written sources, including Poor Law and nursing journals, this paper highlights the role played by Poor Law nurses in the diffusion of values and attitudes that helped to transform the workhouse regime from one of punishment to therapy. (shrink)

The article argues that there are three senses of the term African diaspora – a continental, a cultural and a racial sense – which need to be distinguished from each other when conceptualising Black African diasporas in Europe. Although African Diaspora Studies is occupied with African diasporas in a racial sense, usually it has conceptualised these in terms of racial and cultural identities. This is also true of the past decades of African Diaspora Studies on Europe. This article (...) makes an argument for a socio-political conceptualisation of Black African diasporas in Europe that includes, but goes beyond, matters of identity and culture. (shrink)

[1] Diaspora, imagined in terms of a people that belong both to a place of departure and to a place of arrival, is implicitly transitive. Narrated in these terms, a diasporic people is defined by being in-between two places, by a transitive zone of indeterminacy. It is marked, at its arrival-place, by its belonging to another place, and thus as not fully belonging to the place; it is marked, at its departure-place, by its belonging to another place, and thus as (...) not fully belonging to the place.1 To be in-between departure and arrival is to be in-between places of belonging. This in-between is simultaneously articulated as a belonging-too-much (belonging to more... (shrink)

The proliferation of diasporas has influenced the nature of internationalization in many higher education (HE) systems and institutions, especially in terms of academic and student mobility/migration. Through a systematic review of the academic literature, I critically analyze the widespread uses of and approaches to ‘diaspora’ in HE research and its relationship to internationalization. I identify two major areas of studies and corresponding approaches to diaspora: one which frames diaspora as human capital and focusses on the role of the state; (...) and the other which frames diaspora as marginalized other and social construct. I argue that ‘diaspora’ in HE studies tends to be ambiguous, under-defined, under-theorized, and fragmented. I further argue that it is loosely connected to internationalization discourses, despite its clear connections. I posit that this is because ‘internationalization’ is associated with humanitarianism, cosmopolitanism, global citizenship and the de-centering of states, nations, ethnicities, religions, and particularistic identities. Diaspora is often associated with these latter categories and thus, is shunned. I conclude by suggesting that the blending of (often conflictual) ideas, intentions, values and identities is precisely what diaspora engages in and that the conditions of our increasingly mobile and (inter)connected world necessitate a (re)thinking of diaspora in HE scholarship. (shrink)

Durban, a coastal city in KwaZulu-Natal (one of the nine provinces in South Africa) boasts the Durban Harbour. One hundred and sixty-two years ago, this harbour was referred to as the Port of Natal. Between the year’s of 1860 and 1911, 152 184 indentured Indian labourers entered the British owned Colony of Natal through this port. Even though indentureship was officially abolished in Natal on 21 July 1911, the hardships and challenges endured by Indian nationals in Natal continued. This article (...) shines a spotlight on the period 1895–1960 through the theoretical prism of indentureship by focusing on the reflective memories of the respondent, Mr J.S. Singh, a nonagenarian. Using oral history methodology, face-to-face interviews were held with the respondent. His reflective memories brought alive the reality of life experiences in Natal between 1895 and 1960. He shared the journey of his Indian born paternal grandmother, Mrs Takurine Mahesh Singh who constitutes the cohort that left their country of birth as Indian nationals but subsequently created the Indian diaspora in Natal, where their descendants now call South Africa their home. Contribution: The content of this article is not simply described but also briefly reflected upon and explored as certain issues may be of interest to new, emerging and established oral historians. Furthermore, audio and video recordings of the interviews, which clearly illustrate oral history as the methodology as applied in this research, are available for academic, education and research purposes. (shrink)

This article explores a question that is often assumed but rarely addressed: What does Israel provide ideationally for Diaspora Jews that serves as the basis for Diaspora/Israel relations and justifies the importance of Israel for Jewish identity? Whereas past literature on this topic has either assumed an answer to this question or debated survey results and demographics, this article takes a different approach by not assuming an answer to this question. The article argues that Diaspora Jews’ relationship with Israel is (...) best understood phenomenologically. The significance of Israel for Diaspora Jews is found in a type of obligation that is political but is not based in sovereignty or law but instead in meaning that serves as a form of authority and functions as part of the phenomenological structure characterizing Jewish being-in-the-world in the age of Israel. Using a combination of personal reflection, empirical research, and theoretical investigation, the article concludes by suggesting that critique... (shrink)

This analysis of enslavement in an American South subregion provides an historical microcosm for understanding the complexities of provincial culture formation in the modern world-system. Simultaneously rooted in multiple points of local and world-systemic origin, peoplehood is an historical product of the capitalist world-system. Despite widespread notions to the contrary, low black population density and geographical isolation did not forestall slave community building on small plantations. Despite extreme repression, slaves dialectically preserved and altered hidden transcripts in order to recapture pasts (...) that had been silenced by the capitalist system. Embracing the collective diasporic memory of many disparate communities, small slave populations shared the collective grievance and the counter-hegemonic culture of all who had been forced to participate in international and domestic labor migrations. (shrink)

The article deals with the activities of the UGCC in the field of preservation of Ukrainian identity of a new wave of migration. Using traditional strategy, the church is looking for new approaches to migrants, based on old and seeking new cultural codes which are understandable for present-day Ukrainian in his incultural intentions in abroad.

Resumo: Este artigo trata da diáspora africana como fonte epistemológica e, principalmente, de pensar suas implicações para a produção de filosofia africana, no Brasil. Para isso, o corpo será enfatizado como meio de comunicação com o mundo visível ou invisível, através do terreiro, estabelecendo uma relação entre a vivência e o pensamento filosófico. Em seguida, para fundamentar a diáspora, será interpretada a narrativa da orixá Oyá/Iansã, tendo como eixo o “corpo sem fronteiras” que medeia natureza e cultura. Por fim, propõe-se (...) uma filosofia que articule o encontro entre o terreno e o espiritual, a tradição e o moderno, baseando-se em uma conexão conceitual entre África e Brasil.: This article deals with the african diaspora as an epistemological source and, mainly, think the implications for the production of african philosophy in Brazil. To this issue, the body will be emphasized as a means of communication with the visible or invisible world through the terreiro, establishing a relationship between experience and philosophical thought. Then, to base the diaspora, the narrative of orixá Oyá/Iansã will be interpreted as its axis the “body without borders” that mediates nature and culture. Finally, we propose a philosophy that articulates the encounter between the earth and the spiritual, the tradition and the modern based on a conceptual connection between Africa and Brazil. (shrink)

This article aims to present Judith Butler’s theory of diaspora as a theological paradigm for post-secular social existence. Her accounts of dispossession, statelessness, and exilic identity all afford us a normative challenge for how to think politics and the theological together. We begin by framing Judith Butler’s diasporic theory of politics within Adriennes Rich’s poetic perspective on ecstatic identity. We proceed to argue that by emphasizing both the precariousness and interdependency of social life, Rich and Butler’s shared commitments to universalizing (...) queer forms of collective belonging and affective relations offer an alternative post-secular paradigm to that offered so far by theorists such as Charles Taylor or Jürgen Habermas. Achieving a post-secular “state” may ultimately be a matter of embracing the failure of our own representations, particularly the failures of contemporary religion to represent either the divine or the human, or to constitute a society with its own political theology. It is paradoxically this kind of failure that can open us up to look at ourselves, and to focus on the precariousness and vulnerability of human existence that we see with our very eyes and reproduced by our very own hands. (shrink)

‘Why Queer Diaspora?’ intervenes at the intersection of queer theory and diaspora studies to ask how the conditions of geographical mobility produce new experiences and understandings of sexuality and gender identity. More particularly, this essay argues against a prevalent critical slippage between queer and diaspora, through which the queer is read as a mobile category that, like diaspora, disrupts the stability of fixed identity categories and thus represents a liberatory position within the material and geographical displacements of globalization. Instead, I (...) posit that the work of ‘queering’ diaspora must be to examine the new articulations of normative and queer as they emerge in the transformations of the late twentieth century. To this end, the essay looks to two contemporary documentaries, Remote Sensing (Ursula Biemann, 2001) and Mariposas en el Andamio/butterflies on the Scaffold (Margaret Gilpin and Luis Felipe Bernaza, 1996), as models of alternative articulations of the queer and the diasporic. Ultimately, I argue, it is a focus on the labour through which the seemingly natural categories of gender and sexuality are produced, that a queer diasporic criticism might offer. (shrink)

El Festival Flores de la Diáspora Africana surge en 1999 en Costa Rica, organizado por la Fundación Arte y Cultura para el Desarrollo, con el propósito de promover las manifestaciones artísticas y culturales de la población afrocostarricense en particular, y de los pueblos afrodescendientes y africanos, de manera general. A lo largo de diecinueve ediciones, se ha colocado la cultura de matriz africana en el más alto nivel, con la presencia de grupos de ballet folclórico como el Kilandukilu de Angola, (...) el Ballet Garífuna de Honduras, la bailarina Bethania Nascimento, perteneciente al Alvin Hailey Ballet, y el Opus Dance Theater de New York. En el bel canto, la soprano Sarah Carrere, dio fe de su gran talento franco-senegalés, así como en gospel el coro de la iglesia St. Agustine de Washington, y grupos como Master Key, Charleene Stuart y Sasha Campbell, de Costa Rica, conquistaron la audiencia con ritmos como gospel, spiritual, R&B y Soul, sin olvidar las agrupaciones nacionales de Calipso, que han dejado su huella en el Festival.En esa pasión por mostrar los mejores representantes de las diferentes manifestaciones del arte y la cultura de la Diáspora Africana, en 2012 la Fundación invitó a Costa Rica al Premio Nobel de Literatura de 1984, Derek Walcott. Para dar continuidad a este trabajo con los artífices de la palabra, también en 2013 se realizó el 1er Encuentro de Escritores y Poetas Afrodescendientes, Indígenas y Sinodescendientes, cuyo resultado fue la antología: Tenemos la Palabra, en la cual se muestra el trabajo de casi cincuenta creadores. Las escritoras Eintou Pearl Springer (Trinidad y Tobago), Melanie Taylor (Panamá), Myrna Manzanares (Belice) y Nancy Morejón (Cuba), fueron publicadas en dicha antología. Hoy nos llena de satisfacción publicar en la Revista Ístmica una parte de su obra poética1, así como su respectiva traducción al español, buscando exaltar su trabajo artístico y visibilizar la literatura escrita por mujeres afrodescendientes en el Caribe. (shrink)

This chapter is devoted to the discussion of religious freedom and the anti-racist fight in the Black Diaspora in Latin America, considering the historical processes that involve such discussion, including legal apparatus such as Human Rights and local legislation. Therefore, as a starting point, we take the historical conditions of the emergence of Candomblé in Brazil, that are linked to the trafficking of enslaved African peoples and their resistance to keep alive in their memories, their religious beliefs and their worldviews. (...) Wherefore, it is a discussion in which religious freedom is not dissociated from the anti-racist struggle in the case of Brazil, where, in the 20th century, the myth of racial democracy is produced in the light of studies carried out by Gilberto Freyre in the midst of the 1922 post-week modernist movement. (shrink)