Diaspora mobilisation for conflict and post-conflict reconstruction: contextual and comparative dimensions

ABSTRACT

This special issue seeks to move the scholarly conversation beyond notions of conflict-generated diasporas as simply agents of conflict or peace. The field is ripe to unpack the notion of context for diaspora mobilisation in International Relations, the focus and novelty of this special issue. Theorising in this volume goes beyond current prevalent thinking that contexts are host-states in which diasporas live, and original home-states to which they are transnationally connected. The emphasis here is that diasporas have linkages to different contexts, and that their embeddedness in these contexts – simultaneously or sequentially in time – either shapes their mobilizations or is shaped by them. The volume theorises about spatialities and temporalities of diaspora engagement: it emphasises spatial notions such as multi-sited embeddedness, positionality, and translocalism on the one side, and temporal notions such as critical junctures, transformative events, simultaneity, crises, and durability of conflicts on the other. This collection further adds new thematic areas to current scholarly inquiry, opening the discussion beyond interest in diaspora remittances, economic development, and extraterritorial voting. The authors take little-explored paths to examine diasporas as agents in transitional justice processes, contested sovereignty, and fragile and de facto states, as well as in civic and ethnic-based activism.     

英汉回文辞格特质对比研究：时空性差异的映显

以“英汉语时空性差异”为研究视角，采用对比方法，对回文辞格在英汉语的字（词）、短语、句子和篇章等多个层面进行分析，发现英语中的回文修辞更多地呈现勾连、延续的特点，句法可逆性稍弱，篇章组构犹如线条型的锁环相扣，可发挥余地有限；而汉语里的回文修辞更多地彰显块状、离散的表征，句法可逆性较强，篇章组构恰似平面型的魔方变换，可施展空间充足。英汉回文辞格均是对各自语言本质特点的发挥和利用，二者存在数量上的多寡和构拟程度上的难易分别昭示出英语的强时间性思维倾向和汉语的强空间性思维倾向。该结论有助于从修辞维度为英汉语时空性本质差异提供佐证，进一步推动英汉对比研究。     

Diaspora governance and religion: The (re)production of the Guangze Zunwang cult in the Chinese diaspora

The role of sending states receives little attention in existing studies of transnational religion; another body of literature on diaspora governance gives little scrutiny to the religious dimension of diaspora strategies. This paper attempts to bridge the two bodies of works by exploring the state-directed religious networking in the Chinese diaspora. Through a case study of the Guangze Zunwang cult, it investigates how origin states mobilize migrant religious networks for diaspora engagement and how diaspora communities respond to governing strategies. Different Chinese (non)state agents operate diasporic religious programs—international cultural tourism festivals and deities’ cross-border processions—respectively within and outside the territory. Inspired by the state-directed networking, diaspora groups also launch temple alliances in residential places, yet at the same time, produce alternative networks dedicated to revitalizing the cult. The paper sheds light on the multiplicity and flexibility of diaspora governance and provides further insights into the agency of the diaspora through transnational religious networking.