Theorizing Diaspora and Music
Theorizing Diaspora and Music

Summary/Abstract: This article sketches out a synthesis of issues that have emerged inthe study of diaspora and music. The author identifies two broad approachesin the literature: 1) diaspora as social formation and 2) diaspora as metaphor.By “diaspora as social formation” is meant approaches that stressa sociological definition of diaspora and that emphasize the historical factsand material conditions of diasporas, with empirical enquiry focused on thesocial networks that maintain diasporic communities and the role of music inarticulating such networks. In contrast, approaches that evoke “diaspora asmetaphor” emphasize the interpretive possibilities that the idea of diasporaenables in regard to the historical and contemporary global flows of music.The article ends with a brief discussion of the metaphor of the rhizome asa way of thinking about the non-hierarchical nature of diasporic networks,and of the way music may articulate the different nodes of these networkswhile providing a vehicle for the imagination and performance of diasporicconsciousness.

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