Diaspora, identity and the media: diasporic transnationalism and mediated spatialities

This publication offers a comprehensive and multispatial analysis of transnational life across the highly mediated worlds where diaspora is lived and imagined. In a detailed and stimulating discussion, the author unravels processes of diasporic identity construction in everyday life. Media consumption and communication technologies’ appropriation become increasingly important in the formation of shared identities for populations spread across the globe. In exploring the current trends and future outlooks of diaspora this book adopts a spatial approach and looks into the locations of diasporic life: the domestic, the public, the urban and the transnational space. This multifaceted method reveals the complexity and tension of connections and networks within the diaspora and beyond. The book has two dimensions. It introduces the reader to the role of media in the construction of diasporic and migrant identities, while also revealing in empirical ways how this relation is actually initiated and sustained in everyday life and through complex spatial connections. The use of rich data collected in ethnographic research over two years unfolds the complex relation between identity and the media and indicates how media become significant agents for diaspora, identity and community. The research in London and New York City , the two ultimate global cities, offers a unique transnational and transatlantic contribution to the study of globalization, diaspora, media and identity