2nd year lecture on concept of diaspora
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Diaspora Global and Local
Transcript of 2nd year lecture on concept of diaspora
Diaspora
Global and Local
Europe is a cultural space of meeting, mixing and clashing; a space of sharing (and not sharing) economic, cultural and symbolic resources. Dominant ideologies of Europeanism project an image of Europe as a common and distinct cultural Home, a Home that excludes and (re-) creates Otherness when it does not fit a model of universalism and appears as competing particularism. Cultural diversity has always characterised Europe, but growing potentials for mobility and communication have led to the emergence and intensification of diverse cultural experiences and formations.
In this context, the growing numbers and kinds of diasporic media have significant implications for imagining multicultural Europe and for participating (or not) in European societies and transnational communities. What is argued here is that diasporic media cultures do not emerge as projects that oppose the universalistic projects of Europe and of global communication, but that they gain from ideologies of globalisation and democratic participation as much as they gain and depend on ideologies of identity and particularism. Drawing from a cross-European mapping and three specific case studies, I try to explain why diasporic media cultures challenge both the limits of European universalism and of diasporic particularism.
Myria Georgiou, “Diasporic Media Across Europe: Multicultural Societies and the Universalism/Particularism Continuum”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31:3, May 2005, 481-498, p. 481
What is diaspora?
• From Ancient Greek dia (through, over) + sperein (sporein) – to sow
• διασπορά – "a scattering or sowing of seeds"
What is diaspora?
• Used originally in Greek translation of Bible for the dispersion of the Jews – enslavement of 10,000 artisans and intellectuals by Babylon 597 BC
What is diaspora?By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we also wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our lyres on the willows in its midst. For there those who carried us away captive required of us a song; and those who tormented us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. (Psalms 137:1-6)
Diasporic experience common in SF
Outcasts, BBC, 2011
Implications of the term?
To be filled in by you…
Who is part of a diaspora?
To be filled in by you…
British Diaspora• Britain always a migrant community
• Since early C17 “Exporters of people”
• From General Report of 1861 Census quoted in Encyclopedia of Diasporas– “The people of these islands are more moveable than other nations”
British Diaspora• From Introduction to 1861 Census
The measures above detailed comprised all that was absolutely necessary to obtain the Census of the inhabitants of England and Wales, but it appeared
desirable to obtain also several collateral returns relating cither to British subjects not
residing within the United Kingdom, or to certain of the community already in part enumerated dispersedly among the general population. Accordingly, His Royal Highness the General
Commanding-in-Chief was pleased to direct that a return should be made, distinguishing officers
from non-commissioned officers and rank and file, by the commanding officer of every regiment or
battalion of the British army at home and abroad, showing the ages, country of birth, and whether single, married, or widowers; also of the numbers
and ages of the women and children.
British Diaspora• From Introduction to 1861 Census
The Lords of the Admiralty, as already stated, directed that returns of a like nature should be furnished with respect to the officers and men of the Royal Navy. The
Secretary of State for India in Council procured returns of the numbers, ages, civil condition,
occupations, and birth-places of the British-born subjects (exclusive of the Army) resident in India at the date of the Census; and by the Secretary of State for the Colonies the latest returns of the population of the colonial possessions and dependencies of the
British Crown were obtained. Through the intervention of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, returns of the number of British subjects residing in several
foreign States were furnished by their respective governments, or by the consular agents of this country. The numerical results shown by these various returns
will be found in Tables printed in the Appendix to this Report.
Migrants in and within Britain 1861
• For 1861 Census e.g. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=SRC_P&c_id=10&cpub_id=EW1861GEN&show=
1983 US Census40 million claimed English ancestry43.7 million claimed Irish14.2 million claimed Scottish2.5 million claimed Welsh
(“The estimated foreign-born population in 1997 was 25.8 million. As a percentage of the total population, the foreign-born population increased from 4.7 percent in 1970 to 6.2 percent in 1980, to 7.9 percent in 1990, and to an estimated 9.7 percent in 1997.” -- US Census Bureau)
Retirement communities1996 750,000 UK pensions being paid to pensioners overseasIrelandSpainGermanyFrance
R.King, T. Warnes, A. Williams, Sunset Lives: British Retirement to the Mediterranean, Berg, 2000
(see also http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/retiring-try-a-move-to-ireland-like-75000-other-uk-pensioners-1365483.html)
Retirement communitiesEnglish-language newspapers in Spain
UK TV in Spain
http://www.eyeonspain.com/
English-language media in Tuscany
Diasporic FOODsghormeh-sabzi
Lynn Harbottle, "'Bastard' Chicken or Ghormeh-sabzi? sabzi?: Iranian women guarding the health of the migrant family." in Consumption Matters, edited by Kevin Hetherington Stephen Edgell, and Alan Warde. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers pp. 204-226. "
Diasporic FOODs
Caglar, Ayse. 1995. "McDoner: Doner Kebap and the Social Positioning Struggle of German Turks." in Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Cultural Identity, edited by Arnold Costa and Gary J. Bamossy Janeen. Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 209-239
Indian DiasporaCurry (of course)
Indian Diaspora
Implications for diasporic identity?
interesting overview on migrant food experiences
Examples of diasporic media groups
• http://www.zeetv.com/– http://www.zeetelevision.com/ (company website)
– Look up zeetv through Google and see what conclusions you can come to about it
Examples of diasporic media groups
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_TV
– http://www.telafrictv.com/information/corporate
