Global Diasporas: An Introduction

What is a diaspora? For the Greeks, from whose language the word originated, diaspora meant the dispersal of population through colonization. For Jews, Africans, Armenians, and others, the word acquired a more sinister and brutal meaning. Diaspora meant a collective trauma, a banishment into exile, and a heart-aching longing to return home. During the early modern period, trade and labor diasporas girded the mercantilist and early capitalist worlds. Today the term has changed again, often implying a positive and ongoing relationship between migrants' homelands and their places of work and settlement.

In this perceptive and arresting analysis, Robin Cohen illuminates the changing meanings of diaspora and the contemporary diasporic condition. This volume serves to introduce a major new series, Global Diasporas, which will prove essentail for students of race, ethnicity, nationalism, and comparative politics.

Author: Robin Cohen
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 05/01/1997
Pages: 241
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.51h x 5.47w x 0.74d
ISBN: 9780295976204

About the Author

Robin Cohen is professor of sociology at the University of Warwick.