Diaspora offers a modern cultural path distinct from European internationalism

Evidence

These developments may at first seem remote from the concerns of new emerging nations and cultures of the “periphery.” But as we suggested, the old center-periphery, nation-nationalist-culture model is exactly what is breaking down. Emerging cultures that feel threatened by the forces of globalization, diversity, and hybridization, or that have failed in the project of modernization, may feel tempted to close down around their nationalist inscriptions and construct defensive walls. The alternative is not to cling to closed, unitary, homogenous models of “cultural belonging” but to embrace the wider processes—the play of similarity and difference—that are transforming culture worldwide. This is the path of “diaspora,” which is the pathway of a modern people and a modern culture. This may look, at first, just like—but is really very different from—the old “internationalism” of European modernism. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 867

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines diaspora as an alternative to both closed nationalist models and European internationalism — a key concept for the field.
• XREF: Connects to the center-periphery model (Wallerstein) and later postcolonial theory that the Islamophobia readings will assume.
• SEED: Angle: how ‘diaspora’ as an analytic name for identity-in-motion differs from the nationalism that Islamophobia studies interrogate.