Dr. Maria Koinova Edits a Special Issue "Diaspora Mobilizations for Conflict and Postconflict Reconstruction: Contextual and Comparative Dimensions" with Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

This special issue seeks to move the scholarly conversation beyond notions of conflict-generated diasporas as simply agents of conflict or peace. The field is ripe to unpack the notion of context for diaspora mobilisation in International Relations, the focus and novelty of this special issue. Theorising in this volume goes beyond current prevalent thinking that contexts are host-states in which diasporas live, and original home-states to which they are transnationally connected. The emphasis here is that diasporas have linkages to different contexts, and that their embeddedness in these contexts – simultaneously or sequentially in time – either shapes their mobilizations or is shaped by them. The volume theorises about spatialities and temporalities of diaspora engagement: it emphasises spatial notions such as multi-sited embeddedness, positionality, and translocalism on the one side, and temporal notions such as critical junctures, transformative events, simultaneity, crises, and durability of conflicts on the other. This collection further adds new thematic areas to current scholarly inquiry, opening the discussion beyond interest in diaspora remittances, economic development, and extraterritorial voting. The authors take little-explored paths to examine diasporas as agents in transitional justice processes, contested sovereignty, and fragile and de facto states, as well as in civic and ethnic-based activism.

The introduction to the special issue is available in temporary open access at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1354152

A short video featuring individual contributions of the papers by the following authors is available to view at the bottom of the page.

David Carment and Rachel Calleja: "Diasporas and Fragile States – Beyond Remittances. Assessing the Theoretical and Policy Linkages";

Maria Koinova: "Critical Junctures and Transformative Events in Diaspora Mobilization for Kosovo and Palestinian Statehood"

Elizabeth Mavroudi: "Deconstructing Diasporic Mobilization at a Time of Crisis: Perspectives from the Palestinian and Greek Diasporas";

Matthew Godwin: "Winning Westminster-Style: Tamil Diaspora Interest Group Mobilization in Canada and the UK";

Camilla Orjuela: "Mobilizing Diasporas for Justice: Opportunity Structures and the Presencing of a Violent Past";

Dzeneta Karabegovic: "Diaspora and Transitional Justice: Mobilization Towards Youth and Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina";

Cindy Horst: "Making a Difference in Mogadishu? Multi-sited Embeddedness Among Young Norwegian-Somalis and Somali-Americans";

Marie Godin: “Breaking the Silences, Breaking the Frames: A Gendered Diasporic Analysis of Sexual Violence in the DR Congo.”

Maria Koinova: "Critical Junctures and Transformative Events in Diaspora Mobilisation: An article in JEMS"