Diaspora Politics

Η διαμόρφωση της ‘κοινής γνώμης’ στα εθνικά θέματα: Η ‘ομογένεια’ και τα διάφορα πρόσωπα του ‘ελληνισμού’ στον σύγχρονο ελληνικό Τύπο [Greek Public Opinion and National Issues: The Homogeneis and the ‘Different Faces’ of Hellenism in Modern Greek Newspapers]

by Elpida Vogli

δημοσιεύτηκε στο Χρήστος Α. Φραγκονικολόπουλος (επιμ. και εισαγ.), ΜΜΕ, Κοινωνία και Πολιτική. Ρόλος και Λειτουργία στη Σύγχρονη Ελλάδα, Αθήνα, εκδ. Ι. Σιδέρη (στη σειρά Δημοσιογραφία και ΜΜΕ), 2005, σ. 381-396. [published in Christos A. Fragonikolopoulos (ed.), Mass Media, Society and Politics in Modern Greece, Athens, publ. Ι. Sideri (Journalism and Mass Media), pp. 381-396 (in Greek)

Το έθνος και η ελληνική διασπορά στον πολιτικό λόγο του Κωνσταντίνου Τσάτσου [The Greek nation and the Greek diaspora in Konstantinos Tsatsos’ political thought]

by Elpida Vogli

δημοσιεύτηκε στο Κωνσταντίνος Τσάτσος, φιλόσοφος, συγγραφέας, πολιτικός (Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Επιστημονικού Συνεδρίου, Αθήνα, 6-8 Νοεμβρίου 2009), Γρανάδα-Αθήνα: Κέντρο Βυζαντινών, Νεοελληνικών και Κυπριακών Σπουδών, Εταιρεία Φίλων Κ. και Ι. Τσάτσου, 2010, σσ. 667-682.
[published in the Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference “Konstantinos Tsatsos, the philosopher, the writer, the politician” (Athens, 6-8 November 2009), Granada-Athens: Centro de Estudios Byzantinos, Neogriegos y Chipriotas, The Society of Konstantinos Tsatsos’ Friends, pp. 667-682. (in Greek)]

The European Context of the Greek Great Idea: The suggestions of a Greek Newspaper in London [Vretanikos Astir (The British Star), 1860-1862)

by Elpida Vogli

published in the Proceedings of the 26th Hellenic Historical Conference, (Thessaloniki, 28-29 May 2005), Thessaloniki, pp. 143-154 (in Greek)

Η ελληνική πολιτική απέναντι στους απόδημους Έλληνες κατά το πρώτο μισό του 20ού αιώνα

by Elpida Vogli

published in M. Rossetto, M. Tsianikas, G. Couvalis and M. Palaktsoglou (eds), Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University June 2009, Flinders University Department of Languages-Modern Greek: Adelaide, South Australia, 661-671.

Role of Turkish Islamic Organizations in Belgium: An Inquiry into the Strategies of TIFB and IFB

by Zeynep Yanasmayan

published in Insight Turkey, 12 (1), p.139-161, 2010.

This article examines transnational organizations of Turkish origin that gained major support and membership in the... more This article examines transnational organizations of Turkish origin that gained major support and membership in the European societies. Drawing upon a case study on Turks in Belgium, it shows that in the last four decades these organizations went through various transformations depending on the dynamics in their respective immigrant communities, host societies and countries of origin. This essay captures the role and self- adaptation process of Turkish Islamic organizations vis-à-vis the changing environment both in their host countries and countries of origin.

The Making of Greece Abroad: Continuity and Change in the Modern Diaspora Politics of a Historical Irredentist Homeland

by Elpida Vogli

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 17.1 (2011), pp. 14-33.

'Arisen from Deep Slumber': Transnational Politics and Competing Nationalisms among Syrian Immigrants in Argentina, 1900-1922

by Steven Hyland Jr.

published in the'Journal of Latin American Studies,' August 2011

‘God is technology’: mediating the sacred in the Congolese diaspora

by David GARBIN

Forthcoming  in:

Fortunati, L., Pertierra, R. and Vincent, J. (Eds) 2011: Migrations, Diaspora and Information Technology in Global Societies. London and New York: Routledge.

‘God is technology’:
mediating the sacred in the Congolese diaspora

David Garbin (CRONEM, University... more ‘God is technology’:
mediating the sacred in the Congolese diaspora

David Garbin (CRONEM, University of Surrey)
Manuel A. Vásquez (University of Florida)


Forthcoming  in:

Fortunati, L., Pertierra, R. and Vincent, J. (Eds) 2011: Migrations, Diaspora and Information Technology in Global Societies. London and New York: Routledge.


In this chapter, we explore the creative use of electronic media to advance charismatic and prophetic/messianic Christianity among migrant and diasporic populations located at various nodes of an asymmetrical power-geometry (Massey, 1993).
What is the nature and function of ICT networks between places in the diaspora and places in the homeland, and between places across the diaspora? What can transnational communication strategies and practices tell us about the symbolic and sacred importance of social spaces within a global diasporic territory? To which extent is the use of media connected to the production of religious identities and embedded in particular politics of the sacred?
We take African religious scapes as a case study, drawing on ongoing fieldwork in the Congolese diaspora in London and to a lesser extent in Atlanta and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We will show how ICTs are deployed by Congolese religious actors to draw and redraw symbolic geographies of the sacred as they negotiate the multiple (dis)embeddedness that accompany diasporic and migrant livelihoods. We will first examine the role of ICT mediation in the performance of the sacred and in the diasporic configurations of Pentecostal/charismatic churches. In our second case study, we will focus more specifically on the Kimbanguist church, one of the largest transnational Congolese churches, in order to analyze the linkages between diasporic belongings, politics of the sacred and ICT mediation.
As we shall see in the case of the Kimbanguist church, the use of ICTs is embedded in particular politics of religious legitimacy and authenticity and may have unintended, and even unwanted consequences. The more mediation there is, higher the danger of conflicts over orthodoxy and the greater the probability of emergence of alternative nodes of sacrality which may contest the authority and power of a sacred axis mundi like Nkamba, the Holy City of Kimbanguism in the DRC. However, despite these dangers, African diasporic churches have come to rely heavily on electronic media and global popular culture to link their nodes and (virtual) sacred territories but also to generate the collective spectacles that are the essential ingredient for the personal experience of the Holy Spirit, fusing the medium and message in ways that even Marshall MacLuhan would never have anticipated. 

The Marginalization of Italian American Writers and Italian American Literature

by Michael Carosone

Dissertation " The Politics of Displacement: A Transnational Analysis of Kurdish Forced Migration in Turkey and Europe"

by Bilgin Ayata

Abstract, Table of Contents and Introduction of my dissertation " The Politics of Displacement" (January 2011).

Wedding Citizenship and Culture: Korean Adoptees and the Global Family of Korea

by Eleana Kim

Embodied Spirit(s) and Charismatic Power among Congolese Migrants in London

by David GARBIN

published in
Dawson, A. (2010) Ed. Summoning the Spirits: Possession and Invocation in
Contemporary Religion. IB Tauris.

In this chapter I wish to examine the dynamics associated with the contested definitions of embodied charismatic power... more In this chapter I wish to examine the dynamics associated with the contested definitions of embodied charismatic power among Congolese migrants belonging to the Kimbanguist church, one of the largest African Initiated Christian churches. Initially a prophetic movement led by Simon Kimbangu in the then Belgian Congo, Kimbanguism has developed to become, in postcolonial times, a religious institution with a myriad of parishes in the Congolese diaspora, in Europe and North America. My case study, located in London, in one of these Kimbanguist diasporic spheres, will explore the different discourses and meanings associated with the phenomenon of the ‘molimo’ (plur: milimo) − often referred to as manifestations spirituelles − consisting of ritualised embodiment, by several women-mediums, of the spirits (milimo) of the ‘Papas’, the Prophet-founder, Simon Kimbangu, and his sons.

Comprising the two dimensions of healing (nsadisi) and divination (mbikudi) these manifestations spirituelles lasted from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, when the practice was ‘officially’ banned by the Kimbanguist clergy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Drawing on an ethnography of the Kimbanguist church in the UK and in the DRC and on an oral history of the manifestations spirituelles in the London context, I wish to shed some light on the tensions over the boundaries of spiritual power and authority among Kimbanguists leaders and worshippers. These tensions had an important impact since they eventually triggered a major conflict leading to the first division of the church in London.

This conflictual dimension, linked to the mobility of spiritual forces across different socio-spatial scales and realms, will be a key component of my analysis. Indeed, whilst spirit possession may be both considered an ‘integral part of socio-religious representations and practices’ and viewed as a  ‘mode of contact’ between God/spirits and humans (Tarabout, 1999:17), I wish to focus, in this chapter, on the politics of the spirit(s) and the ways in which the molimo phenomenon is bound up with the idioms of order, charisma and public prophetic performance. This is important to consider as practices linked to spirit possession have often been conceptualised cross-culturally as expressions or metaphor of (changing) social realities but also as forms of counter-discourse and counter-agency calling into question explicit or implicit hierarchies (Boddy, 1994; Osella and Osella, 1999).