Routledge Democracy, Diaspora, Territory: Europe and Cross-Border Politics (Studies in Migration and Diaspora)

This volume offers a profoundly new interpretation of the impact of modern diasporas on democracy, challenging the orthodox understanding that ties these two concepts to a bounded form of territory. Considering democracy and diaspora through a deterritorialised lens, it takes the post-Euromaidan Ukraine as a central case study to show how modern diasporas are actively involved in shaping democracy from a distance, and through their political activity are becoming increasingly democratised themselves. An examination of how power-sharing democracies function beyond the territorial state, Democracy, Diaspora, Territory: Europe and Cross-Border Politics compels us to reassess what we mean by democracy and diaspora today, and why we need to focus on the deterritorialised dimensions of these phenomena if we are to adequately address the crises confronting numerous democracies. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in migration and diaspora, political theory, citizenship and democracy. Review "Thinking beyond the territorial mentality is a growing theme in democratic theory and empirical research on democracy.However, so far most of our theoretical reasoning about deterritorialisation of democracy focusses on economic globalization and political supranationalisation of democratic regimes. Much less do we know about the impact of diasporas on democratic development. Therefore this book is timely and important. It will contribute to further our understanding of democracy within and beyond the nation state." - Wolfgang Merkel, Professor, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung WZB, Germany"The editors and contributors to this book dig deep in addressing the crucial question of whether territory is necessary both to the expression of national democracy and a diasporic consciousness. The answer, Oleinikova and Bayeh convincingly argue, is to see territory as becoming manifest only when multi-layered points of interaction intersect with the politics of the imaginary and reality. Their conceptual intervention and the Ukrainian case study provide original and arresting insights." - Robin Cohen, Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford, UK About the Author Olga Oleinikova is Lecturer and Director of Ukraine Democracy Initiative in the School of Communication at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She is the winner of the Forbes 30 Under 30 award and is a finalist for the 2018 Council of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia Future Leader Prize.Jumana Bayeh is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University, Australia, and the author of The Literature of the Lebanese Diaspora: Representations of Place and Transnational Identity.