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Literally the scattering of a population, diaspora was originally applied to the dispersal of the Jews following the Roman conquest of Palestine and the destruction of Jerusalem in  AD 70 (Keller, 1971). The term is now applied more widely to other non-voluntary population dispersals such as the Black diaspora that resulted from the slave trade (cf. slavery). Several types of diaspora have been distinguished including victim, labour, trade, imperial and cultural diasporas (Cohen, 1997). Within cultural studies, attention has focused on the transnational connections and hybrid cultures that have developed across such diasporic communities (Chow, 1993; Gilroy, 1995; Brah, 1996), ideas which are now being debated within geography (Mitchell, 1997). (PAJ)
References Brah, A. 1996: Cartographies of diaspora. London: Routledge. Chow, R. 1993: Writing diaspora. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. Cohen, R. 1997: Global diasporas: an introduction. London: UCL Press. Gilroy, P. 1995: The Black Atlantic. London: Verso. Keller, W. 1971: Diaspora: the post-Biblical history of the Jews. London: Pitman. Mitchell, K. 1997: Different diasporas and the hype of hybridity. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 15: 533-53. |
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