The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture

A multidisciplinary, authoritative outline of the current intellectual landscape of the field.

Over the past three decades, the term ‘diaspora’ has been featured in many research studies and in wider theoretical debates in areas such as communications, the humanities, social sciences, politics, and international relations. The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture explores new dimensions of human mobility and connectivity—presenting state-of-the-art research and key debates on the intersection of media, cultural, and diasporic studies

This innovative and timely book helps readers to understand diasporic cultures and their impact on the globalized world.

The Handbook presents contributions from internationally-recognized scholars and researchers to strengthen understanding of diasporas and diasporic cultures, diasporic media and cultural resources, and the various forms of diasporic organization, expression, production, distribution, and consumption. Divided into seven sections, this wide-ranging volume covers topics such as methodological challenges and innovations in diasporic research, the construction of diasporic identity, the politics of diasporic integration, the intersection of gender and generation with the diasporic condition, new technologies in media, and many others. A much-needed resource for anyone with interest diasporic studies, this book:

• Presents new and original theory, research, and essays
• Employs unique methodological and conceptual debates
• Offers contributions from a multidisciplinary team of scholars and researchers
• Explores new and emerging trends in the study of diasporas and media
• Applies a wide-ranging, international perspective to the subject 

Due to its international perspective, interdisciplinary approach, and wide range of authors from around the world, The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, lecturers, and researchers in areas that focus on the relationship of media and society, ethnic identity, race, class and gender, globalization and immigration, and other relevant fields.

List of Figures and Tables ix

Notes on Contributors xi

Series Editors’ Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxi

1 Diasporas, Media, and Culture: Exploring Dimensions of Human Mobility and Connectivity in the Era of Global Interdependency 1
Roza Tsagarousianou and Jessica Retis

Part I Roots and Routes: The Nature of “Diaspora(s)”: Their Relation to Nation, Ethnicity, Religion, Societies of Provenance, and Societies of Settlement 21

2 Diasporas: Changing Meanings and Limits of the Concept 23
Robin Cohen

3 Digital Diasporas: Beyond the Buzzword: Toward a Relational Understanding of Mobility and Connectivity 31
Laura Candidatu, Koen Leurs, and Sandra Ponzanesi

4 The Tragedy of the Cultural Commons: Cultural Crossroads and the Paradoxes of Identity 49
Thomas Hylland Eriksen

5 Diaspora and the Plurality of Its Cosmopolitan Imaginaries 63
Myria Georgiou

6 Beyond the Concept of Diaspora?: Reevaluating our Theoretical Toolkit Through the Study of Muslim Transnationalism 77
Roza Tsagarousianou

7 Doing Diasporic Media Research: Methodological Challenges and Innovations 97
Kevin Smets

Part II Home and Away: Transnationalism, Localism, and the Construction of Diasporic Identity 113

8 Homogenizing Heterogeneity in Transnational Contexts: Latin American Diasporas and the Media in the Global North 115
Jessica Retis

9 Unraveling Diaspora and Hybridity: Brazil and the Centrality of Geopolitical Context in Analyzing Culture in Global Postcolonial Space 137
Niall Brennan

10 Media, Racism, and Haitian Immigration in Brazil 151
Denise Cogo and Terezinha Silva

11 China’s Vessel on the Voyage of Globalization: The Soft Power Agenda and Diasporic Media Responses 165
Wanning Sun

12 Digital Diaspora: Social Alliances Beyond the Ethnonational Bond 179
Saskia Witteborn

13 Transnational Mediated Commemoration of Migrant Deaths at the Borders of Europe 193
Karina Horsti

Part III Cultural Politics in the Diaspora: Diasporic Public Spheres/Spaces, Identity Politics, and Diasporic Activism 207

14 The Politics of Diasporic Integration: The Case of Iranians in Britain 209
Annabelle Sreberny and Reza Gholami

15 Scripting Indianness: Remediating Narratives of Diasporic Affiliation and Authenticity 225
Radha S. Hegde

16 Media Representations of Diasporic Cultures and the Impact on Audiences: Polarization, Power, and the Limits of Interculturality 239
Miquel Rodrigo‐Alsina, Antonio Pineda, and Leonarda Garcia‐Jimenez

17 Toward a Democratization of the Public Space?: Challenges for the Twenty‐First Century 255
Alicia Ferrandez Ferrer

18 Decolonizing National Public Spheres: Indigenous Migrants as Transnational Counterpublics 269
Antonieta Mercado

19 The Power of Communication Networks for the Political Formation of a New Social Actor in Chile: The Case of Migrant Action Movement 283
Ximena Poo

Part IV Nation and Diasporas: Diasporas, Nationalism, and the Making of National Cultures 295

20 Making National Cultures: Sindhis in Indonesia’s Media Industries 297
Thomas Barker

21 Reporting Violence and Naming Migrants in Assam: The Coverage of Anti‐“Bengali Muslim” Violence in Assam by The Assam Tribune Newspaper 311
Musab Iqbal

22 Media and Nationalism Beyond Borders 329
Janroj Yilmaz Keles

23 Online Diasporas: Beyond Long‐Distance Nationalisms 343
Angeliki Monnier

24 Somali Development Agents as Development Communicators: Visions and “Religious” Challenges 359
Michele Gonnelli

25 The Mediation of Migration and States of Exception 373
Miyase Christensen and Christian Christensen

Part V Gender and Generation: How Do Gender and Generation Intersect with the Diasporic Condition and Impact on Diasporic Cultural Politics? 385

26 Intersections and (Dis)Connections: LGBTQ Uses of Digital Media in the Diaspora 387
Alexander Dhoest

27 Sri Lankan Migrant Women Watching Teledramas in Melbourne: A Social Act of Identity 401
Shashini Ruwanthi Gamage

28 Digital Diasporas: Accounting for the Role of Family Talk in Transnational Social Spaces 415
Gabriel Moreno‐Esparza

29 Italian Post‐war Migration to Britain: Cinema and the Second Generation 429
Margherita Sprio

Part VI New Technologies, New Experiences: Changing Media and Information and Communication Technologies, and Their Impact on Diasporic Cultures 443

30 Between Access and Exclusion: Iranian Diasporic Broadcasting in Open TV Channels in Germany 445
Christine Horz

31 Low Frequencies in the Diaspora: The Black Subaltern Intellectual and Hip‐Hop Cultures 461
Bryce Henson

32 Facebook for Community, Direct Action, and Archive: Diaspora Responses to the 2014 Floods in the Balkans 475
Deborah James

33 The Romanian Scientific E‐Diaspora: Online Mobilization, Transnational Agency, and Globalization of Domestic Policies 491
Mihaela Nedelcu

34 Refugees, Information Precarity, and Social Inclusion: The Precarious Communication Practices of Syrians Fleeing War 503
Melissa Wall, Madeline Otis Campbell, and Dana Janbek

35 Racial and Class Distinctions Online: The Case of the Mexican European Diaspora on Social Networking Sites 515
Lorena Nessi and Olga Bailey

Part VII Redefining Social Spaces in the Diaspora: The Transformation of Urban, Physical, and Virtual Spaces 529

36 Physical and Virtual Spaces Among the Palestinian Diaspora in Malmo 531
Fanny Christou and Spyros Sofos

37 Developing and Defending Mixed Identity: Lessons from the Caribbean Diaspora 547
Charisse L’Pree Corsbie‐Massay and Raven S. Maragh-Lloyd

38 Latino and Asian as Pan‐Ethnic Layers of Identity and Media Use Among Second‐Generation Immigrants 563
Joseph Straubhaar, Laura Dixon, Jeremiah Spence, and Viviana Rojas

39 Migration, Transnational Families, and New Communication Technologies 577
Mirca Madianou

Index 591