Diasporic Futures
Temporality and Hope in the Transnational Politics of London Cypriots
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Published:30th Sep '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Connected to a divided island, British Cypriots have participated in the reproduction of conflict and partition but have also been active agents of peacebuilding and reconciliation. Focusing on the latter, Diasporic Futures traces the transnational politics of Greek Cypriots in London during a significant historical period in which space opened for diasporic involvement in peace politics at ‘home’. It applies a temporal framework and proposes that diasporas and transnationalism - often analysed through an emphasis on space - must also be understood through an investigation of time. The book argues that diasporas do not exist linearly, but are made, reorganised or enervated in and by time, aggregating at particular historical points and dissipating at others. Moreover, Diasporic Futures illustrates that, although imagined as anchored in the past and ‘out of sync’, diasporas are ‘horizonal’, made by their orientations towards the future and a politics of hope.
Diasporic Futures is a thoughtful study in the anthropology of hope, tracing and questioning its analytic horizons in the context of frozen conflict. Its remarkable ethnographic richness springs from the various locations in which diaspora happens: the erstwhile colonial centre, the questionable homeland, community centres, political performances, cyberspace and multifarious borders. A needed text for bleak times. -- Olga Demetriou, Durham University
‘A fascinating and well-grounded critique of the concept of hybridity, which has become popular in diaspora studies. The book focuses on a less studied aspect of Cypriot diaspora politics and the analyses of intergenerational tensions and differences regarding the history and politics of Cyprus. The exploration of the role of ICT in peacebuilding in Cyprus is particularly interesting.’ -- Élise Féron, International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Ulster University
It is an excellent and original addition to literature on the politics and partition of Cyprus, bringing fresh data and perspective and without shying away from the complexities of diasporic political identity. -- Alexandria Innes, City St George’s University * Immigrants & Minorities *
Diasporic Futures offers an impressive ethnographic account of how diaspora politics take shape across generations, institutions, digital networks and journeys “home”, particularly at moments when “surges of hope” “make alternative futures appear possible”. [...It] shifts attention from conflict and nationalism to the contested meanings of peace politics in diaspora. One of its major strengths is that it does not romanticise peace, but instead shows the contradictions, compromises and contestations involved in peace struggles. [...] By treating hope as an ethnographic object of analysis rather than an abstract ideal, Chatzipanagiotidou offers a rigorous account of how futures are lived in the present, and how diasporas are made and unmade through time. -- Constadina Charalambous, European University Cyprus * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
ISBN: 9781399502610
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages