Who Constitutes the Diaspora? The Problem of Identity in the Studies on the Diaspora Cover Image

Qui fait la diaspora? Le problème de l’identité dans les recherches sur les diasporas
Who Constitutes the Diaspora? The Problem of Identity in the Studies on the Diaspora

Author(s): Camelia Beciu
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Editura Comunicare.ro
Keywords: identity; diaspora; diasporic experience; transnationalism; discourse

Summary/Abstract: This article opens up a debate on the analytical relationship between “identity” and “the diaspora”. We discuss whether approaching the diaspora from an identitarian perspective constitutively generates an essentialist view of the diaspora or, contrariwise, allows the analysis of socio-cultural and cognitive processes of diaspora configuration. Is an analysis of the diasporic identity operational? Starting from various approaches to the diaspora, this article highlights certain analytic limits in understanding the relationship between concept (definitions of the diaspora), practices (forms of individual and collective reflexivity, belonging, solidarity or resistance practices) and the problem of diasporic identity.

  • Issue Year: XIV/2012
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 13-28
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: French