Diasporic visions of democracy and territory

This chapter explores the complexity of territory within the field of diaspora studies. It emphasises a modern perspective of diaspora, one that is necessarily framed by deterritorialisation. It maps the various ways diaspora has been traditionally understood, and tracks the tensions evident between orthodox and more progressive approaches to dispersal. The author, Jumana Bayeh, argues that these two approaches diverge in various ways, but most notably in relation to the significance of territory. She proposes a deterritorialised form of diaspora in an attempt to both recognise the inescapable importance of place within diaspora thinking and for dispersed communities, and to critique the particular ways in which it is centralised and rendered of fundamental importance. This chapter explores how a diasporic sensibility framed a disposition of what Bayeh refers to as ‘critical distance’ is an avenue through which to examine delocalised processes of democratisation.