Global Diasporas: An Introduction

The first edition of this book showed how the ancient Greek concept of diaspora could be refurbished to understand many aspects of ethnic diversity and international migration. In this second, fully revised edition, Robin Cohen has clarified and extended his original typology of diasporas that has caused so much debate. He has both responded to the controversy and shown how the concept has itself rapidly taken on new meanings associated with the complexities arising from contemporary cultural globalization.While retaining his interest in the historical, sociological and political aspects of diaspora, this edition has amplified the elements of the concept of diaspora concerned with social identities and post-coloniality. In particular, apparently antithetical accounts of creolization and hybridity are creatively counterposed to a diasporic consciousness. Though he deals with complex ideas and experiences, the author has made the book student-friendly by his lucid language and the use ofboxes, guided reading and suggested questions at the end of each chapter.

Robin Cohen is Professorial Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. He taught for many years at Warwick and has also held appointments all the Universities of Ibadan, the West Indies and Cape Town. His other books include The New Helots [2003], The Cambridge Survey of World Migration [edited, 1995], Frontiers of Identity [1994], Migration and its Enemies [2006] and Global Sociology with Paul Kennedy [rev. 2007].