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Between Dispersion and BelongingGlobal Approaches to Diaspora in Practice |
eBook Available
Revisiting diaspora theory with illuminating global case studies.
As a historical and religious term "diaspora" has existed for many years, but it only became an academic and analytical concept in the 1980s and ’90s. Within its various usages, two broad directions stand out: diaspora as a dispersion of people from an original homeland, and diaspora as a claim of identity that expresses a form of belonging and also keeps alive a sense of difference.
Between Dispersion and Belonging critically assesses the meaning and practice of diaspora first by engaging with the theoretical life histories of the concept, and then by examining a range of historical case studies. Essays in this volume draw from diaspora formations in the pre-modern Indian Ocean region, read diaspora against the concept of indigeneity in the Americas, reassess the claim for a Swedish diaspora, interrogate the notion of an "invisible" English diaspora in the Atlantic world, calibrate the meaning of the Irish diaspora in North America, and consider the case for a global Indian indentured-labour diaspora. Through these studies the contributors demonstrate that an inherent appeal to globality is central to modern formulations of diaspora. They are not global in the sense that diasporas span the entire globe, rather they are global precisely because they are not bound by arbitrary geopolitical units.
In examining the ways in which academic and larger society discuss diaspora, Between Dispersion and Belonging presents a critique of modern historiography and positions that critique in the shape of global history.
Contributors include William Safran (University of Colorado Boulder), James T. Carson (Queen's University), Eivind H. Seland (University of Bergen), Don MacRaild (University of Ulster), and Rankin Sherling (Marion Military Institute: the Military College of Alabama).
Between Dispersion and Belonging critically assesses the meaning and practice of diaspora first by engaging with the theoretical life histories of the concept, and then by examining a range of historical case studies. Essays in this volume draw from diaspora formations in the pre-modern Indian Ocean region, read diaspora against the concept of indigeneity in the Americas, reassess the claim for a Swedish diaspora, interrogate the notion of an "invisible" English diaspora in the Atlantic world, calibrate the meaning of the Irish diaspora in North America, and consider the case for a global Indian indentured-labour diaspora. Through these studies the contributors demonstrate that an inherent appeal to globality is central to modern formulations of diaspora. They are not global in the sense that diasporas span the entire globe, rather they are global precisely because they are not bound by arbitrary geopolitical units.
In examining the ways in which academic and larger society discuss diaspora, Between Dispersion and Belonging presents a critique of modern historiography and positions that critique in the shape of global history.
Contributors include William Safran (University of Colorado Boulder), James T. Carson (Queen's University), Eivind H. Seland (University of Bergen), Don MacRaild (University of Ulster), and Rankin Sherling (Marion Military Institute: the Military College of Alabama).
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History Series (number 2.4 in series)
384 Pages, 6 x 9
8 tables, 1 diagram
ISBN 9780773547131
November 2016
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
“A highly original collection that makes an important and major contribution to the field of diasporic studies. There is little in the field that reflects so critically and effectively the state of the field, and on the concepts it employs.” Kevin J. James, University of Guelph
“Chowdhury and Akenson’s edited volume on diaspora provides an invaluable contribution. The text rigorously examines definitions of diaspora that will engage historians, political scientists, and anthropologists. This thought-provoking volume is mandatory for graduate students, faculty, and specialists in diaspora studies, as well as students and scholars of global history. Essential.” Choice
“Chowdhury and Akenson’s edited volume on diaspora provides an invaluable contribution. The text rigorously examines definitions of diaspora that will engage historians, political scientists, and anthropologists. This thought-provoking volume is mandatory for graduate students, faculty, and specialists in diaspora studies, as well as students and scholars of global history. Essential.” Choice
Amitava Chowdhury is associate professor of history at Queen’s University.
Donald Harman Akenson is Douglas Professor of Canadian and Colonial History at Queen's University.
Donald Harman Akenson is Douglas Professor of Canadian and Colonial History at Queen's University.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword: Between Dispersion and Belonging:
At Home in the Diaspora xi
Amitava Chowdhury
Introduction: Is “Diaspora” a Live Hand Grenade? 3
Donald Harman Akenson
PART ONE CONCEPT 29
1 What and Where Is Diaspora?: Definitions, Analytical
Boundaries, and Research Agendas 31
William Safran
2 Diaspora: Legacies, Typologies, and “Push-Pull” 70
Donald Harman Akenson
3 The Diaspora Symptom: Global Projection
of Local Identities 95
Amitava Chowdhury
PART TWO FORMATIONS 107
4 Who Was First and When?: The Diasporic Implications
of Indigeneity 111
James T. Carson
5 Trade Diasporas and Merchant Social Cohesion in Early
Trade in the Western Indian Ocean 125
Eivind Heldas Seland
6 Perhaps a Silly Question: Was There a Swedish
Diaspora? 138
Donald Harman Akenson
7 An “Invisible Diaspora”?: English Associational Culture
in Nineteenth-Century North America 189
Donald M. MacRaild
8 Ulster Presbyterians, the Great Famine, and the
Historiography of Early Irish America 215
Rankin Sherling
9 Narratives of Home: Diaspora Formations among
the Indian Indentured Labourers 240
Amitava Chowdhury
Conclusion: Diaspora as Global History 254
Amitava Chowdhury
Notes 263
Bibliography 311
Contributors 355
Index 357
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword: Between Dispersion and Belonging:
At Home in the Diaspora xi
Amitava Chowdhury
Introduction: Is “Diaspora” a Live Hand Grenade? 3
Donald Harman Akenson
PART ONE CONCEPT 29
1 What and Where Is Diaspora?: Definitions, Analytical
Boundaries, and Research Agendas 31
William Safran
2 Diaspora: Legacies, Typologies, and “Push-Pull” 70
Donald Harman Akenson
3 The Diaspora Symptom: Global Projection
of Local Identities 95
Amitava Chowdhury
PART TWO FORMATIONS 107
4 Who Was First and When?: The Diasporic Implications
of Indigeneity 111
James T. Carson
5 Trade Diasporas and Merchant Social Cohesion in Early
Trade in the Western Indian Ocean 125
Eivind Heldas Seland
6 Perhaps a Silly Question: Was There a Swedish
Diaspora? 138
Donald Harman Akenson
7 An “Invisible Diaspora”?: English Associational Culture
in Nineteenth-Century North America 189
Donald M. MacRaild
8 Ulster Presbyterians, the Great Famine, and the
Historiography of Early Irish America 215
Rankin Sherling
9 Narratives of Home: Diaspora Formations among
the Indian Indentured Labourers 240
Amitava Chowdhury
Conclusion: Diaspora as Global History 254
Amitava Chowdhury
Notes 263
Bibliography 311
Contributors 355
Index 357
Outstanding Academic Title
Choice: Association of College and Research Libraries
(2017)
Choice: Association of College and Research Libraries
(2017)
