Toward a Multisited Ethnography of the Zimbabwean Diaspora in Britain

Classical diaspora scholars have constructed diasporic identities in essentialistic and unitary fashion, with phrases like the “Jewish identity,” “Palestinian identity,” and “Irish identity” denoting migrants as homogeneous ethnic communities. Using the author's multisited ethnographic research among Zimbabweans in Britain, the article explores the diverse ways in which diasporic identities are performed, expressed, and contested in Britain. On the basis of data from a pub, a gochi-gochi (barbecue) and the Zimbabwe Vigil, this article argues that the concept of diaspora, by emphasizing a static and singular conception of group identity, removes the particular ways in which diasporic life is experienced. The ethnographic “sites” were chosen to highlight different geographic settings to show the contrast between multicultural global cities and how different spaces of association attracted distinctive diasporic communities of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and legal status. The article identifies a pattern of diasporic identity development that largely uses the homeland as a frame of reference, and this is contrasted with alternative, hyphenated identities that challenge the fixation of identities to a specific place. It can be suggested that these diasporic identities are bottom-up forms of resistance to the institutionally ascribed refugee identity, perceptions of blocked social mobility, racism, and discrimination in the hostland.     

Downloading New Identities: Ethnicity,Technology, and Media in the Global Greek Village

This article addresses the ways in which new media and technology contest how Greek ethnic communities in Canada are organized and structured. New technologies allow Greeks to go beyond their physical community and interface, via computer, television, or periodicals with Greeks on a global scale. I argue that current uses in media and technology signal the creation of new dimensions to Greek diasporic identity and imply stronger ties with the homeland and other diasporic communities, thus contesting traditional assimilation paradigms indicating that European ethnic groups are in the twilight of their existence. These findings suggest an increase in the application of new technologies among the first and second generations with interesting implications for our understanding of ethnic identity. I propose that the advent of high-tech forms of media in the last fifteen years has created new outlets for expressing ethnicity among those who already have some Greek ethnic consciousness. The means of acquiring social and cultural capital within diasporic communities is expanded to include these new forms of media, with implications for habitus and daily practices.     

“Our Home and Native Land”? Canadian Ethnic Scholarship and the Challenge of Transnational ism*

L'une des plus importantes contributions des théories modernes de la mondialisation et du transnationalisme est la remise en question des définitions traditionnelles fondées sur l'appartenance à un lieu, applicables à la communauté, à la nation et à la notion connexe de citoyenneté. Les études canadiennes dans le domaine de l'identité ethnique ont tendance à privilégier les notions limitées et fonda-mentales d'ethnicité, au détriment du concept de transnationalisme en tant qu'élément constitutif de l'identité ethnique, envisagé sous Tangle du discours des diasporas et des coutumes des populations d'immigrants. Dans cet article, nous suggérons de déplacer l'analyse afin de mettre l'accent sur les effets du transnationalisme dans la construction ou la reconstruction identitaires des ethnies au Canada. One of the most significant contributions of contemporary theories of globalization and transnationalism, is their challenge to the traditional localizing strategies of community, nation, and the related notion of citizenship. Canadian studies of ethnic identity have tended to privilege bounded and essentialized notions of ethnicity. This has had the effect of eliminating conceptual space for transnationalism as a factor shaping ethnic identifications through a consideration of the diasporic narratives and practices of “immigrant” populations. I propose a shift in analytical focus to place greater emphasis on the impact of transnationalism on the (re)construction of ethnic identities in Canada.     

Sociocultural and epidemiological issues in the assessment of domestic violence

This paper presents alternative models for the integration of multicultural issues in research on domestic violence. Issues are discussed that illustrate ethnic specific strengths, concerns, and weaknesses of ethnic families and communities. These issues need to be incorporated in future research that more thoroughly examines ethnic and cultural issues in violence research. Alternative strategies for future research are also suggested which call for the incorporation of ethnic and cultural issues on an ongoing basis, so that commonalities across studies can emerge and we can begin to understand the cultural context of domestic violence.     

Queering Asian Cultures

Queer Asian studies emerged from a need to study non‐normative genders and sexualities amidst discussions of transnationalism and the globalization of sexualities. In particular, it fills in a gap within lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer studies by focusing on marginalized sexual subjectivities affected by race, ethnicity, immigration and citizenship. Major recent debates in the field of queer Asian studies include the contested usage of the term ‘queer’ and the application of ‘queer theory’ as an analytical framework, the call for intraregional dialogues within Asia and the discussion of normativity as a counter‐analytical framework to understand sexual cultures. Two developing trends can be identified as in growing numbers of research studies on everyday lives that extends beyond sexual identification categories, and pedagogical concerns with teaching sexuality and queer studies in the classroom.     

Race Versus Ethnic Heritage in Models of Family Economic Decisions

Race is an important dimension which survey researchers use to examine a number of social phenomena. Despite its importance, few researchers realize the measurement implications of using race as a proxy for experience and culture in statistical modeling. Particularly problematic is the tendency to use race and ethnic heritage interchangeably. This article proposes that one cannot use race and ethnic heritage interchangeably without impacting the results and interpretation. Through a case study, measurement errors in models that use race and ethnic heritage interchangeably to examine family decisions are explored. Results using race are different from results when ethnic heritage is used. This article concludes with a proposed framework for research that contrasts the utility of race and ethnic heritage in statistical models.     

Manufacturing Naxi’s original ecological culture in contemporary China

For over a decade, original ecological (yuanshengtai原生态) has contested ethnic (minzu) as an influential framework in representing minority folk culture in Chinese official and popular media. This article explores the ideological implications of such a shift in the context of state-minority relationships. By examining Han elites’ invention of the neologism and Naxi elites’ adaptations, I argue that YST transforms local ethnic categories into a transethnic, translocal, and transnational concept, and therefore allows both the nation state and the minority groups to promote their own versions of ethnic identities. Compared to the antagonistic model between state domination and minority resistance, YST reflects a shift from minority political self-determination to cultural self-representation in the drastically changing global environments.     

Renegotiating religious transnationalism: fractures in transnational Chinese evangelicalism

In this article, I question to what extent future generations of immigrants will engage in practices of religious transnationalism through their ethnic institutions. I examine how leaders of the next generation of English‐speaking Chinese Canadian evangelicals made sense of their participation in the Chinese Coordination Centre of World Evangelism, a movement that rallies behind both a pan‐Chinese identity and the belief that the Chinese have a special role in evangelizing the world. I argue that the call to religious mobilization grounded in Chinese ethnicity stands on tenuous ground and propose that linguistic, geographical, generational and ideological fractures may diminish the participation of future generations of the Chinese diaspora in ethnically‐based transnational religious organizations. I conclude that these developments would push ‘negotiated transnational religious networks’ into a state of ‘renegotiation'.     

Configurations of geographic and societal spaces: a sociological proposal between ‘methodological nationalism’ and the ‘spaces of flows’

Abstract The societal practices, symbol systems and artefacts that form sociology's field of study are shifting in their spatial reach. Terms like internationalization, globalization, glocalization or transnationalization denote an (at least perceived) increase in the flow of information, commodities and capital across nation‐state borders as well as an unprecedented ease of human spatial mobility. Situated in the wider research programme of transnationalism, in this article I present a typology of geographic‐societal spatial configurations, of which transnationalism is one of several ideal types. Distinguishing explicitly between an absolutist and a relativist approach to space and applying this to geographic and societal spaces, the article puts forward a framework for discussing how shifts in the geographic reach of the societal are taking place. The case of General Motors provides an example of how such a typology could be applied. The article concludes by discussing some consequences for future empirical research.     

‘Journey to the future’: imaginaries and motivations for homeland trips among diasporic Armenians

This article highlights diasporic migrants' transnational linkages with and trips to their homeland. Second and later generations of diasporic Armenians, predominantly from the USA and Canada, claim to travel to the ancestral homeland in Armenia not as heritage tourists to see the holy Mount Ararat but to invest in local development through social work. Based on ethnographic research, in‐depth interviews with volunteers and text materials, this article identifies those specific features of the contemporary diasporic ‘sacred journey’ that differ from conventional return migrations. This new inter‐continental migratory path between North America and Armenia has a temporary character. By analysing the range of reasons why young professional Armenian‐Americans and Armenian‐Canadians should choose to travel the long distance to offer their services, this article provides insight into the decision to become a volunteer in Armenia and the ways non‐profit diasporic organizations channel and mobilize this transnational activity. The study shows that ‘ethnic’ volunteers are highly conscious of the modern understanding of mobility as being a marker of personal social status within the society in which they grew up. The study of a variety of imaginaries among members of a paradigmatic diasporic group, such as Armenians, shows how second and later diasporic generations take advantage of their multi‐cultural background to become transnational global actors.     

'Traveling Barbies' and rolling blackouts Images of mobility in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding

Abstract

This article proposes to read Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding through a critical framework provided by transnational anthropology. Such a framework suggests that approaches celebrating transnational mobility must be balanced against nationally specific forms of constraint. It is argued that Monsoon Wedding bears out precisely such a balance. Nair's film suggests that the mobility of human lives may not be quite as unfettered as that of cultural commodities. Moreover, the filmic narrative insists on a differentiation within the Indian diasporic community. Similarly, some theorists of transnationalism have cautioned that the concept of a 'diasporic community' may serve to obfuscate class distinctions. At the same time, Nair's film is read in conjunction with theories of commodity circulation. Through the image of the 'traveling Barbie', this article explores the ways in which US cultural commodities may be indigenized, while also suggesting that Indians at 'home' may hardly benefit from such indigenization. Rather, Non-Resident Indians may travel from the US to India to buy a token of their own 'Americanness' in Delhi.     

Ethno‐sectarianism in Iraq,diaspora positionality and political transnationalism

In this article, I draw on the experiences of Iraqi diasporas in the UK and Sweden after the 2003 US‐led intervention to demonstrate how ethno‐sectarianism in Iraq has affected their political transnationalism. Using the concepts of intersectionality and positionality, I show how the reconfiguration of the social positions of individuals and groups in the diaspora affects their types of political engagement and the spaces in which political mobilization takes place. In the case of the Iraqi diaspora, I show how, among other things, the social categories of ethnicity, religion and gender create positions of both subordination and privilege, which inhibit, reshape and empower the political actions of diasporas in both the homeland and host country. In societies divided along ethnic, religious or tribal lines, the social positions of individuals and groups relative to the dominant ethnic/religious political parties and the nationalist ideology they promote determine the nature of their diasporic mobilization.     

When ‘exile’ becomes sedentary: on the quotidian experiences of ‘India-born’ Tibetans in Dharamsala,north India

Waltraud Kokot and her coauthors stated ‘ … . despite a necessary focus on transnational networks and movement, ethnographic studies of diaspora must also not neglect the realities of sedentary diasporic life.’ Taking such a call as my point of departure, this article explores the quotidian experiences of ‘in exile’ specific to a subgroup of Tibetans in Dharamsala, north India, who have for a couple of decades at least described themselves as the ‘India-born’. Secondly, it particularly attends to the sensory domains of these Tibetans' local/Indian experiences and in turn highlights the geo-affinity that they ambivalently feel for the place where they are at once native and exilic. Demonstrated in the article are the ongoing processes through which individuals, feeling marked by the displacement of the nation to which they belong, realize their Tibetan attributes in the context(s) they in varied ways perceive as ‘Indian’.     

(Re)Conceptualizating Race/Ethnic Relationships in US Schools: Toward a Multifaceted and Multilevel Framework

Since the Civil Rights Movements, the emphasis on confronting power, inequality, and racism in US schools has receded. So too has the movement to reverse racial/ethnic segregation and enhance student interactions. Instead, much popular and academic discourse focuses on standardized tests and achievement gaps, leaving the social aspects of schooling and race/ethnic interactions under-explored and largely ignored. Meanwhile, racial/ethnic tensions, hierarchies, inequalities, and the patterns, institutions, and systems that maintain them persist. During a period of growth in the percentages of Latina/o and Asian American/Pacific Islander students, this article argues for the importance of theorizing, researching, and reconceptualizing race/ethnic interactions in schools. Key to this process is adopting a multifaceted and multilevel approach. This involves moving beyond dichotomous thinking and instead adopting a framework that explores (1) the strengths of quantitative and qualitative research; (2) cross- and intra-racial/ethnic relations; (3) the significance of race/ethnicity, class, and gender; (4) a conflict-solidarity continuum of relationships; and (5) the salience of macro-, meso-, and micro-dynamics on school interactions. The adoption of this approach allows for a more complex, nuanced, and contemporary analysis of the phenomena occurring in today’s schools, thereby facilitating the possibility for change.     

From "Us" to "Them": Diasporic Linkages and Identity Politics

Global diasporas-a type of social formation mediating economic, political, and cultural affairs across borders-have been a focus of globalization researchers for some time. However, up to now, little knowledge exists on how social identification affects business participation in diaspora communities and how such participation modifies social identification. This article, based on empirical research on diasporic linkages between Taiwanese transnationals and ethnic Chinese overseas, serves to illustrate a) how globalization has enhanced the practical and economic roles of diasporas, and b) how economic practices and ethnic identification interact within diasporic communities. The author argues that ethnic membership still remains contested, despite diasporas serving as flexible forms of social organization in the mediation of capital flow.     

(Mis)taking policy: Notes on the cultural policy debate

Abstract

The article argues that terms like ‘postcolonialism’ and ‘multiculturalism’ can be totalizing and themselves elide difference. In terms of recent argument in cultural studies in Australia, approaches drawn from postcolonialism referring to Orientalism and race have been contentiously applied to multicultural discourse referring to migration and ethnicity. In such discourse there is a ruling binary distinction between the migrant and Australian society. I seek to complicate the analysis of multiculturalism by pointing to a heterogeneity of shifting centres and margins, for example, between and within ethnic communities, and in diasporic relationships.     

Between transnational engagements and local integration of Chinese communities in Italy: An analysis of the role of migrant organisations

Chinese communities represent one of the largest migrant groups in Italy. Current scholarship overwhelmingly focuses on Chinese ethnic businesses and identity issues. This article addresses an important but under-researched topic: the role of migrant organisations in enhancing migrant transnationalism and/or local integration. We examine three predominant types of Chinese migrant organisations in Italy—civic, educational, religious—across multiple cities. We show that, at first sight, educational and religious organisations aim to serve the communities in maintaining transnational links with the Chinese-speaking world, while civic organisations directly promote interactions with the local society. However, deeper analyses reveal that all three types of organisations can play an active role in fostering both migrant transnationalism and local integration, to different degrees in different domains. We discuss policy implications and how potential synergetic collaborations between host society stakeholders and migrant organisations could be explored.     

Free floating in the cosmopolis? Exploring the identity‐belonging of transnational knowledge workers

In this article I explore what I call the ‘identity‐belonging’ of transnational knowledge workers, a diverse group of serially migrating career professionals who have spent extended periods of time in at least three countries, usually following career opportunities. Unlike most recent writing on transnationalism, which focuses on enduring connections of migrants with their ‘home’ countries/places, here I explore a transnationalism that may transcend the national, and generally the territorial, principle, with repercussions for identity‐belonging. In this context, how transnational knowledge workers position themselves towards belonging to a nation and towards the idea of cosmopolitanism is of particular interest. From data collected through in‐depth interviews in Australia and Indonesia, I conclude that their globally recognized profession forms the central axis of their identity‐belonging, alongside a weak identification with their nation of origin. The feeling of belonging to and identifying with particular locales and local communities was articulated flexibly and instrumentally in association with professional and wider social networks, while no primordial territorial attachments could be identified.     

A civic trend within ethnic transnationalism? Some insights from classical social theory and the Chinese American experience

Abstract In this article I contribute to the debates on transnationalism by reconceptualizing the relationship between transnationalism and assimilation. I posit an ideal‐type distinction between gemeinschaft‐ and gesellschaft‐like transnational practices and suggest an evolving trend towards the latter. In so doing, I show how two bodies of existing work that have generally been self‐contained can usefully be integrated in the study of transnationalism–namely the work of Glick Schiller, Portes and others on ethnic transnationalism and that of Keohane, Sikkink and others on civic transnationalism. In the article I treat the experience of Chinese Americans, who are a pertinent case for analysis because of their longstanding migration to and presence in US society. I begin by laying a theoretical foundation, go on to trace the history of Chinese American transnationalism, present evidence of contemporary Chinese Americans' involvement in a variety of civic associations, and conclude with discussion of this visible trend towards heightened civic transnational activity.     

The family caregiving context among adults with disabilities: A review of the research on developmental disabilities,serious mental illness,and traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

A majority of adults with serious disabilities are cared for in the home by family members. Guided by an ecological framework, this article presents the findings of a literature review of research on family caregiving and family support for adults with disabilities. This review included 33 research studies published between 2000 and 2015 focused on three disabilities: Developmental disabilities, serious mental illnesses, and traumatic brain injury. A synthesis of the findings underscores the critical role that family caregivers occupy in addressing the needs of their loved one with a disability; however, the needs of the caregiver are insufficiently met by existing service approaches. A better understanding of the unique needs and strengths of the family support context of caregivers and care recipients is needed, giving greater attention to ethnic, racial, and cultural considerations in future research.