‘New’ Ways of Accessing Diasporic Homes and Communities in Social Research

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a growing interest in qualitative and ethnographic studies of people who belong to different communities and cultures (Blunt and Dowling 2006; Miller 2009; Daniels 2010; Rose 2010), which has resulted in researchers creating innovative methodologies to explore these groups (Pink 2004; O’Neil 2011). Sociologists who deal with studies of personal and community life move beyond traditional methods of social enquiry and deploy a wide range of methods that cut across such areas as visual sociology, human geography, and ethnography (Blunt 2005; Pink 2006; Daniels 2010; Rose 2010). The phenomenon of transnational migration and the emergence of new global diasporas have shifted the way in which concepts of culture and identity are theorised and explored by social researchers. Over recent decades the focus of sociological enquiry has changed, and it now pays more attention to the complexity of relationships and networks maintained by migrant and diasporic communities. Correspondingly, studies of diasporic homes and identity have begun to involve both tangible (material) and intangible (sensorial) dimensions of social and personal life. In the following sections I will discuss in detail several key interlinked approaches to accessing diasporic identities and homes: by using the multidimensional/sensorial understanding of the concept of home, through the materiality and symbolism of diasporic objects, and by exploring the diasporic quality of migrant fashion and clothing practices.