ABSTRACT

The word ‘diaspora’ has leapt from its previously confined use – mainly concerned with the dispersion of Jews, Greeks, Armenians and Africans away from their natal homelands – to cover the cases of many other ethnic groups, nationalities and religions. But this ‘horizontal’ scattering of the word to cover the mobility of many groups to many destinations, has been paralleled also by ‘vertical’ leaps, with the word diaspora being deployed to cover more and more phenomena and serve more and more objectives of different actors.

With sections on ‘debating the concept’, ‘complexity’, ‘home and home-making’, ‘connections’ and ‘critiques’, the Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Studies is likely to remain an authoritative reference for some time. Each contribution includes a targeted list of references for further reading. The editors have carefully blended established scholars of diaspora with younger scholars looking at how diasporas are constructed ‘from below’. The adoption of a variety of conceptual perspectives allows for generalization, contrasts and comparisons between cases.

In this exciting and authoritative collection over 40 scholars from many countries have explored the evolving use of the concept of diaspora, its possibilities as well as its limitations. This Handbook will be indispensable for students undertaking essays, debates and dissertations in the field.

chapter |10 pages

Diaspora studies

An introduction

part I|83 pages

Exploring and debating diaspora

chapter 2|9 pages

Diaspora studies

Past, present and promise

chapter 3|9 pages

Key methodological tools for diaspora studies

Combining the transnational and intersectional approaches

chapter 4|7 pages

The social construction of diasporas

Conceptual development and the Rwandan case

chapter 6|8 pages

Performing diaspora

chapter 7|8 pages

Embodying belonging

Diaspora's racialization and cultural citizenship

chapter 10|8 pages

Writing in diaspora

part II|76 pages

Complex diasporas

chapter 13|7 pages

Multi-religious diasporas

Rethinking the relationship between religion and diaspora

chapter 14|9 pages

Homelessness and statelessness

Possibilities and perils

chapter 18|9 pages

Intersectionalizing diaspora studies

part III|60 pages

Home and home-making

chapter 20|8 pages

Unravelling the conceptual link between transnationalism and diaspora

The example of hometown networks

chapter 22|8 pages

Diasporicity

Relative embeddedness in transnational and co-ethnic networks

chapter 23|9 pages

Moral comforts of remaining in exile

Snapshots from conflict-generated Indonesian diasporas

chapter 24|8 pages

Islamic schooling and the second generation

A diaspora perspective

chapter 25|9 pages

Diaspora and home

Interrogating embodied precarity in an era of forced displacement

part IV|60 pages

Connecting diaspora

chapter 27|8 pages

Diaspora and religion

Connecting and disconnecting

chapter 28|10 pages

Digital diasporas

chapter 29|9 pages

Diaspora politics and political remittances

A conceptual reflection

chapter 32|8 pages

Displaced imaginations, bodies and things

Materiality and subjectivity of forced migration

chapter 33|7 pages

Disconnecting from home

Contesting the salience of the diaspora

part V|63 pages

Critiques and applied diaspora studies

chapter 35|9 pages

Why engage diasporas?

chapter 36|9 pages

Diaspora mobilizations for conflict

Beyond amplification and reduction

chapter 37|8 pages

Diaspora and development

chapter 39|9 pages

At home in diaspora

The Babylonian Talmud as diasporist manifesto

chapter 40|9 pages

Diasporas building peace

Reflections from the experience of Middle Eastern diasporas