Chapter 19 - diaspora (Khachig Tololyan) Flashcards
What is diaspora concerned with?
the ways in which nations, real yet imagined communities, are fabulated, brought into being, made and unmade, in culture and politics
diaspora is a forum for debates about concrete d theoretical remappings of global ‘‘order’’ that take both the nation-state and its transnational Others into account
they embody the question of borders
the concept of nation under threat
- chain of analogies that once joined the image of the safely enveloped individual body to the homogeneus territorial community is no longer plausible
Roger Rouse: an alternative cartography of social space
- assumes that proliferation of infranational and transnational alternatives to the nation-state has led to a realignment of collective emotional investments
- nationalism and other forms of loyalty will compete for a long time
'’general’’ vs ‘‘special’’ interestes
yes, there is reinvigorated diversity of a plural society, but still:
old ‘‘general’’ interests continue successfully to claim nationwide legitimacy and consent
new and forcefully asserted concerns and claims (e.g. those of transnational communities) continue to be regarded as ‘‘special’’ interest
vision of the world as a ‘‘space’’
is replacing the vision of a homogeneous nation
world as a space that is continually reshaped by forces whose intersections in real estate constitute every ‘‘place’’ as a heterogeneous and disequilibriated site of production appropriation, and consumption, of negotiated identity and affect
*forces: cultural, political, technological, demographic, economic
domestic tranquility
hegemony-seeking elites desire domestic tranquility:
represents itself as a land, a territory, a place that functions as the site of homogeneity, equilibrium, integration
in what way did many nations began as businesses?
- founded fairly abruptly (not in the intimate coevolution of a people and nation over centuries)
- began in part as a set of commercial enterprises
- international commerce initiated the development of many nations
e.g. US, British Canada
the place of diasporas within the state
+ why?
in a nation territory, differences are
assimilated, destroyed or assigned to ghettoes
leads to sharp boundaries that enable the nation to acknowledge the singular and fenced-off differences within itself, while at the same time reaffirming the privileged homogeneity of the rest + the difference between itself and what lies over its frontiers
diasporas have stayed silent out of self-protection, their existence has been carefully policed (stated too loudly and clearly, these representations would inevitably blur difference)
why?
silence seemed necessary to the maintenance of the nation-state
what forces and phenomena constitute the transnational moment?
- diaspora
- massive and instantaneous movements of capital
- introduction of previously alien cultures through ‘‘media imperialism’’
- issues of double allegiance of populations
- plural affiliations of transnational corporations
diaspora vocabulary
- term that describes Jewish, Greek, and Armenian dispersion
- larger semantic domain: immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guestworker, exile community, overseas community, ethnic community
= vocabulary of transnationalism
definition (kind of) of diaspora
transnational collectivity, broken apart by, and woven together across, the borders of their own and other nation-states, maintaining cultural and political institutions
relation nation vs. transnational communities (e.g. diaspora)
transnational communities are sometimes the paradigmatic Other of the nation-state and at other times its ally, lobby or even its precursor (e.g. Israel)
diaspora can be the source of ideological, financial, and political support for national movements that aim at a renewal of the homeland
nation-state
polity that claims special political and emotional legitimacy, representing a homogeneous people, speaking one language, in a united territory, under the rule of one law and (until recently) constituting one market
the past 5 centuries have been a time of ..
the past 5 decades have been a time of…
centuries:
fragmentation
heterogeneity
unparalleled mass dispersion
decades:
cultural and political regrouping
renewed confidence for ethnonations existing across boundaries of established nation-states
*migration has led to proliferation of diasporas
infranational entities
entities that endure within a particular state and resist the cohesion imposed by it
(some entities are infra- and transnational at the same time: living disadvantaged in a reduced territory while reaching out to kindred people elsewhere)
writer + title
Khachig Tololyan
'’the nation-state and its others: in lieu of preface’’
