Towards a Weakened Imagined Community

  • Jowan Mahmod
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the The Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication book series (PIPC)

Abstract

The chapter attempts to place the rich empirical material, which the online ethnographic work and offline in-depth interviews have generated, in a wider context that includes questions of diaspora formation, identity difference, multiculturalism, and citizenship. The discussion brings to the fore emerging trends such as multiconsciousness among a highly transnational Kurdish diaspora that live in at least two cultures and speak multiple languages. Diaspora Kurds demonstrate clearly through their communications and activities online and offline that they are not imagining their identities or homeland, but are constantly in a battle of rethinking and redefining them. Kurds, both in diaspora and in the origin country, explicitly articulate differences among themselves and between their multiple homelands. This does not mean they distance themselves from either location, but rather that they continuously attempt to find new ways to pursue transnational activities in the different settings without losing their sense of belonging.

Keywords

Online Community Discussion Thread Transnational Activity Online Space Double Consciousness 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jowan Mahmod
    • 1
  1. 1.UppsalaSweden

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