Steven Vertovec Research Articles

Transnational Mobiles in Bhramar and Dak Bangala

This article has discussed the Nepali transnational mobiles as the characters in two of the early Nepali novels written by the Indian Nepali novelists. In the early twentieth century when India referred to British India that covered present India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar (Burma), Nepali people used to migrate there in search of works and opportunities. When they left home, they thought to return after certain earnings. But the life was not so easy, and finally most of them stranded in life never to reach anywhere. Rupnarayan Singh’s Bhramar (1970/1936) and Shivakumar Rai’s Dak bangala (2020/1957) have used such Nepali transnational mobiles as the characters. These characters have always been found in the transition as they are wanderers without any fixed place to settle and feel the peace of mind. Mobility is their common quality. The analysis has been based on Janine Dahinden and Steven Vertovec’s idea of transnationalism. They have termed the cross-border migrants who never get permanently settled in the hostland as the transnational mobiles. This article has picked up such characters from both of the novels and discussed their life, culture, mentality and conditions of existence. This article can be a sample for further analysis of Nepali novels from transnational perspective.

Transnational Statelessness in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide

The paper attempts to examine Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide as its primary text. It utilizes Steven Vertovec’s idea of “migrant transnationals” as the analytical tool. In doing so, it also uses Anna Jane Gordon’s idea of “statelessness as enslavement” and Mira L. Siegelberg’s definition of “statelessness.” The paper specifically concentrates on how Bangladeshi refugees and (denationalized) people have been exploited /enslaved and how their transnational statelessness (neither Bangladeshi nor Indian) renders them vulnerable. As the refugees were forced to leave their state/political and legitimate home due to post-partition political turmoil and were attacked/ harmed by both the tide and Indian citizens/people in the Sundarbans and in Calcutta /Kolkata. The so-called “lower” class and “lower” caste people from Bangladesh come to the Sundarbans (tide country) where they are treated as illegitimate and invalid, politically, belonging nowhere (deterritorialized). So, these people have been enslaved in India. Ghosh wants to explore, quite faithfully and realistically, this side of inhumanity, which is prevalent in contemporary society.

Sport and migration in the age of superdiversity

Taking Steven Vertovec's concept of Superdiversity as a starting point, this special issue examines the dynamic interaction of diversity variables in the field of sport and migration issues. The articles published this Speical Issue span from studies on sports labor migration ( sports as migration) to consideration of the role sport plays in the everyday lives of disparate groups of migrants ( sport in migration). Considering the contemporary diversification of migration, we argue that it is more relevant than ever to expand the empirical focus of research in sports and migration issues, but also the breadth of theoretical and methodological approaches utilized. To this end, we illustrate the value of postcolonial theory and intersectionality as theoretical frameworks that can focus on multiple axes of differentiation along with structuring conditions that impact sports and migration issues. Further, we call for researchers in the field to consider the value of methodologies that are novel to their work such as participatory action research and approaches that avoid methodological nationalism.

Rethinking Transnationalism in the Era of Globalization

This paper examines the growing influence of transnationalism on a number of academics, sociologists, anthropologists, economists and political theorists for the last three decades. Critically analyzing ideas expressed by some prominent research scholars such as Steven Vertovec, Patricia Clavin, Masao Miyoshi, Daniel Mato and Paul Jay, this paper aims at exploring the concepts and developments of this new field that has been closely linked with globalization and deterritorialization. By assessing the prominence of transnationalism in various disciplines, this paper reaches the conclusion that literature, like culture, society, economy and politics, cannot remain exempt from the waves of global forces as literature in today’s world is more an expression of transnational encounters than the record of ‘national’ experiences alone.

Transnationals’ Search for Home in Bhattarai's Muglan

This article addresses the issue of Nepali transnationals’ search for home as depicted in Govinda Raj Bhattarai’s novel Muglan. The novel presents three types of transnationals as its characters: diasporans, transnational mobiles and transnational outsiders. Throughout the life, all of them go on searching for a home that can provide them comfort, security and peace of mind. But none of the characters can achieve it. The novel presents the reality of Nepali transnational migration that is continued for centuries. For the analysis of the characters and their condition and consequences, the theories of transnationalism and diaspora have been used. Janine Dahinden’s idea of three types of transnational migrants and Steven Vertovec’s discussion on the practice of cultural diaspora have been the main theoretical bases for this study. Both of the theorists claim that the transnationals leave their homeland with the motive of making their home back in the land of origin better than that of the time they leave it. Throughout their stay in the host land, they try to achieve their goal sacrificing everything they have. Some of them try to find their dream home even in the host land. But finally, they cannot achieve their dream in the reality. So, the transnationals remain homeless throughout. Bhattarai’s Muglan gives fictio-realistic expression to this theoretical claim.

Transnational Characters in Bhattarai's Muglan

This article deals with the transnational characters used in Govinda Raj Bhattarai’s novel Muglan (1974). Based on the centuries long trend of Nepali people’s migration across the border and the pains they have been undergoing, the novel has presented three types of characters to show the types of Nepali transnational community living in India and Bhutan. The first type is that of transnational mobiles who leave Nepal for job and education, want to return to Nepal and cannot have any type of permanent settlement in the hostland. The main character Sutar is one of such characters. The highest number of characters in the novel is of this type. The second type of characters are diasporic ones who have left Nepal and have been permanently settled in Bhutan. Characters from the Nepali speaking community in Bhutan are of this type. The lowest number of characters in the novel are transnational outsiders who visit India from Nepal for a short time. The people who go for pilgrimage and cross-border purchase of everyday goods are the characters of this type. The discussion section of the article analyses the causes and effects of such migration resulting into the creation of such characters. The theoretical modality used for the analysis is Janine Dahinden and Steven Vertovec’s ideas of transnationalism. This article will be useful for the researchers and critics who want to study Nepali texts from transnational perspective.

Identity and transnationalism: Narrating the Haitian - American home in selected works by Edwidge Danticat

In contemporary discourses, the lives of migrants are often marginalised and silenced. For this reason, bringing the theme of migrants’ identities to the foreground in literary research appears to be increasingly important. This article discusses the experiences of Haitian immigrants to the US as nar-rated by the Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat. I explore the theme of making a transnational home in her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) and short stories from the collection Everything Inside(2019). The analysis is based on a combination of two theories: Steven Vertovec’s theory of transnation-alism and Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of narrative identity, which enable interpreting intergenerational identity changes, certain methods of cultural reproduction, and “little” cultural cross-connectedness of “family and household” (Vertovec 2009: 3-18) in the context of personal identity understood as formed through narratives. This article focuses on the transition from a Haitian home to an American one as an important part of identity-formation processes. It also views a migrant’s journey as still incomplete after coming to the US and requiring “emplotting” (De Fina 2003: 17) its fragmented events into stories. The article attempts to demonstrate intangible ways of creating a transnational home and domestic methods of narrating and negotiating one’s cultural identity in Danticat’s fiction. I claim that Danticat’s works narrate personal experiences to generate a “refigured” understanding of time and transnational ties within the family sphere.

Exploring a Tiriti-based superdiversity paradigm within early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article reports findings from a study that used a process of document analysis to examine early childhood care and education responses to increasing superdiversity in the ‘bicultural’ legislative context of Aotearoa New Zealand. The New Zealand Education Review Office has described both Indigenous Māori children and ‘children of migrants and refugees’ as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘priority learners’. This article uses the lenses of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Indigenous rights) and Steven Vertovec’s superdiversity approach to examine the implications of representations of the Indigenous Māori and the settler population in early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand. It further applies Sara Ahmed’s diversity work on a phenomenology of whiteness to scrutinise the New Zealand government’s commitments to supporting its nation’s ‘priority learners’.

Working in International and Multicultural Schools

The term super-diverse is being used to describe contemporary society. Super-diversity, coined by Steven Vertovec in 2007, was intended to describe the different ethnic groups existing in society in general. Ontologically, this term takes into account the movement of people from one country to another and celebrates the fact that all people are different and unique and can contribute in different ways to society. In the past twenty years, the movement of people in the world increased, and this had led to a situation where we are now speaking more in terms of mobility, rather than in terms of migration when people move from one place to another.

Do desenvolvimento da danc?a teatral em Portugal no po?s-25 de abril de 1974

A dança teatral em Portugal atesta um assinalável desenvolvimento a seguir à Revolução de Abril de 1974. Do novo panorama destacam-se três aspetos: a redefinição e a expansão do repertório do Ballet Gulbenkian, de que procedem a visibilidade que adquire o coreógrafo Vasco Wellenkamp e a emergência da linguagem reformadora de Olga Roriz; a criação da Companhia Nacional de Bailado; e a diversificação das orientações estéticas e dos projetos artísticos independentes, no âmbito da então designada Nova Dança Portuguesa. Neste trabalho, o meu objetivo é perceber, de forma encadeada, que condições favorecem o crescimento da dança em Portugal, a diversificação de projetos e estéticas, e que relações entre as pessoas os instigam ou propiciam, nos termos em que a articulação destes três domínios - condições, representações e relações - é formulada pelo cientista social Steven Vertovec (2015), no âmbito dos estudos sobre a diversidade.

Transnational Identity in Indra Bahadur Rai’s Selected Short Stories

Are the people of Nepali origin who are born in India and live there transnational? This is a piercing question in transnational discourses in Nepal and India these days. But its answer is clear once we take the help of the concept of transnationalism: they are transnational Nepalis living in India. This reality is further clarified with the studies on Indra Bahadur Rai’s short stories. Almost all the characters in his stories are the people of Nepali origin living in Darjeeling. They are unhappy there and always behave like the temporary residents of the place. Most of his stories deal with the life of these people in relation with their search for the origin and related physical and psychological journeys. Even the images, symbols and settings used in the stories connect themselves with the idea of journey and the problems of settlements. This article deals with the same aspects of his collection of stories entitled Pratinidhi Kathaa [Representative Stories]. The stories are analyzed with the help of interpretive methodology and use of Steven Vertovec and Jenine Dahinden’s ideas of transnationalism. John McLeod, Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Roland Végső and Winfried Fluck’s ideas of transnational literature are used as the basic concepts in analysis.

Approximating entrepreneurial superdiversity: reconceptualizing the superdiversity debate in ethnic minority entrepreneurship

ABSTRACTOne decade after its introduction, the superdiversity concept introduced by Steven Vertovec has widely found echoes in migration research, but also in business studies, particularly those focusing on ethnic minority entrepreneurship (EME). In spite of conceptually embracing superdiversity in EME research, the multi-dimensionality of superdiversity in its original understanding appears to require further consideration. Dimensions currently overlooked in research at the nexus of superdiversity and ethnic minority entrepreneurship are: (1) ethnic but also religious and linguistic diversity of entrepreneurship, (2) entrepreneurial diversity regarding business-types and (3) incorporation of the characteristics of the city within its analytical unit. Based on an extensive site survey of ethnic businesses in Glasgow combining ethnographic assessment and available statistical data on the city districts, this paper reconceptualizes the entrepreneurial superdiversity to do justice to the on-going debates on superdiversity within migration research. In doing so, it proposes the Entrepreneurial Superdiversity Index (ESI), which is a viable method for approximating entrepreneurial superdiversity in cities. The ESI allows comparative analyses of entrepreneurial superdiversity within a specific city and potentially also between different cities internationally, which could be highly useful for policy-makers and planners alike. It also delivers grounds for developing a general index for superdiversity in further migration research.

Muslim Dilemmas in the Republic of Ireland: Anti-Extremism and Self-Regulation in the Context of Super-Diversity

ABSTRACTSince the 1990s, a very small Muslim community in the Republic of Ireland has expanded rapidly and become increasingly diverse. For all that research has identified growing expressions of anti-Muslim racism, mainstream Irish political discourse and political responses to Ireland’s Muslim communities have not reflected the antipathy towards Islam that is identifiable in a number of other European countries. The response of the Irish state towards Muslims has been one of apparent neglect, benign and otherwise, whilst Muslims, for their part, appear to have lived unobtrusively. We examine the position of Muslims in Ireland through the lens of three issues that have been debated within Muslim communities in recent years: the alleged threat of terrorist activity within Muslim communities; calls for regulation of Muslim/Islamic activities; and a 2018 controversy relating to comments made by a leading Islamic figure in Ireland on the topic of female genital mutilation. Our analysis, framed by Steven Vertovec’s concept of super-diversity, emphasizes the need for policymakers to avoid presumptions of homogeneity.

African Christian diaspora religion and/or spirituality: A concept analysis and reinterpretation

The purpose of this article is to analyze how the concept of African Christian diaspora religion and/or spirituality, as a missionary-based model, is currently being used and defined within African transnational research and diaspora religion. I conducted a review using a citation search strategy to retrieve peer-reviewed articles that explore the extent to which the seminal paper of Steven Vertovec on “Diaspora Religion” has informed the conceptualization and analysis of the concept of African Christian diaspora religion and/or spirituality (ACDRS). The search generated empirical articles which met the inclusion criteria and were included for concept analysis. This concept analysis identified five emerging attributes of ACDRS as (a) a network of support, (b) a transnational dynamic, (c) a platform for civic engagement and activism, (d) the basis for developing place bonds and diaspora identity, and (e) as an experiential religion. These defining attributes position ACDRS as a multidimensional concept encompassing noninstitutionalized religious expressions and activities, albeit with limited empirical data. I also discussed some study limitations and conceptual issues related to the attributes, antecedents, consequences, and cases of ACDRS.

Introduction

Introduction

Considering the Transnational Cultures and Texts of Canadian Youth

Considering the Transnational Cultures and Texts of Canadian Youth Samantha Cutrara (bio) Prominent transnational scholar Steven Vertovec identified six ways for understanding transnationalism: as social morphology, form of consciousness, mode of cultural production, avenue of capital, site of political engagement, or as reconstruction of place. Most simply, transnationalism is a theoretical concept that encapsulates experiences and identities that span across or beyond national borders. As James Clifford notes, transnationalism is "the connection (elsewhere) that makes a difference (here)" (qtd. in Vertovec 450). As a settler state, Canada has always had a population that moved across and beyond borders (Dubinsky et al.). Before settlement, while not being organized along the same geographic and political concepts of borders, Indigenous nations across Turtle Island, the continent of North America ("The Story of Turtle Island"), moved across and beyond territories. The history of this land thus shows how people are not static. Experiences are not static. Texts, cultures, histories, and lives are not bound by political organizations and institutions. There is fluidity in the ways national boundaries shape the experiences and materials of people's lives, and this can especially be seen in the experiences of youth. The literature linking youth and transnationalism highlights that young people experience movement across borders differently from adults, and therefore their experiences with transnationalism are different too. Researchers find a "fluid and complex interplay of culture and identity" in young people's negotiation and construction of a sense of self (Simmons and Plaza 144), and theorize that nationalities and ethnicities which young people are related to and to which they relate are part of this interplay (Somerville). Christiane Harzig and Dirk Hoerder also remark that children often have a unique interaction with transnationalism because of formal schooling spaces. Within the space of the school, young people can encounter children from other countries and are inculcated in the particular national values of the nation in which they live as well. [End Page 42] As we move into the twenty-first century, transnationalism plays an even greater part in young people's lives. Alejandro Portes, Luis E. Guarnizo, and Patricia Landolt identify transnationalism as an important concept for theorists, educators, and practitioners to contemplate because "while back-and-forth movements by immigrants have always existed, they have not acquired until recently the critical mass and complexity necessary to speak of an emergent social field" (217). In particular, the ubiquity of the internet and social networking technologies has meant that the texts and cultures that young people create, interact with, and participate in are not limited by political geographical divisions, but instead are developed based on their interests, desires, and place(s) for community. Given that youth can access texts and cultures from around the world through a click of a mouse, youth with the financial resources to do so can self-style their identities to align with global youth cultures (Warikoo, Balancing; "Gender"), enacting performative explorations of race, nation, and culture for themselves and others (Bondy; Somerville). Vertovec distinctly identifies that youth are bound into the literature on transnationalism because of how youth create their identities in ways that "are often self-consciously selected, syncretized and elaborated from more than one heritage" (451). In this special section of Jeunesse, six scholars in four articles explore transnationalism in the ways the texts and cultures of young Canadians are "self-consciously selected, syncretized and elaborated from more than one heritage" (Vertovec 451). In Canada, diversity of cultures and nationalities is what many youth appreciate about their country (Ahmad Ali; Grant; Tastsoglou and Petrinioti; Lee and Hébert), guiding their "visions of Canada" (Ahmad Ali 99). I have also argued that transnationalism is one of the defining features of Canadian youth's experiences and identities in Canada today (Cutrara). Yet the literature of Canadian youth's transnationalism is scant. The contributions featured in this collection demonstrate innovative arguments for the ways transnationalism is enmeshed with young people's lives in Canada; and these arguments are not just based on the lives of immigrant or first-generation Canadians, but the lives of youth who were born in Canada as well. In their introduction to a collection on transnationalism and Canada, Vic Satzewich and Lloyd...

“We have to teach them diversity”: on demographic transformations and lived reality in an Amsterdam working-class neighbourhood

ABSTRACTThis article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on what the notion of super-diversity means in the practice of everyday life. Whereas the founder of the super-diversity concept, Steven Vertovec, primarily uses the term to point to specific demographic transformations, other scholars have deployed it in more ideological or theoretical terms. Based on ethnographic research in a working-class area of Amsterdam, this study analyses how and to what extent a new demographic super-diverse reality is lived on the ground. Whereas some studies show that super-diverse demographics can result in a super-diverse lived reality in which ethnic and racial diversity becomes the “new normal”, this article reveals a different situation. The findings of this study suggest that demographic transformations leading to increased migration-driven diversity can reinforce boundaries between groups of neighbourhood residents based on dominant class, racial and ethnic distinctions.

What about the mainstream? Assimilation in super-diverse times

ABSTRACTSuper-diversity has become the conceptual touchstone for a large body of research on immigration in European societies. Evolving from the ideas sketched by Steven Vertovec in his famous 2007 essay, the concept as deployed in research has become a successor to multiculturalism. The super-diversity lens has trained attention on horizontal processes of “living together” in very diverse settings, like some urban neighbourhoods where no group holds the majority status. However, we argue here that for a fuller understanding of integration, we need the vertical dimension of social power. This dimension is manifest through the mainstream, which permeates many institutions (including local ones such as schools) and becomes visible in the cultural adjustments made by members of immigrant-origin minorities, particularly among those who aspire to social mobility. The power axis represented by the mainstream is not strictly dependent on the demographic distribution of ethnic groups, given that white natives remain very powerful even when they are a numerical minority. At the same time, the character of the mainstream may be altered to some extent by the entry of individuals with non-white minority origins. To illustrate these ideas, we offer the examples of the “culturalization of citizenship” in the Netherlands and the social locations of young people of mixed background in the US.

Caste Diasporas beyond National Boundaries: Digital Caste Networks

Although castes are organizing as cross-border formations empirically, the literature seems preoccupied with analyzing caste diasporas in terms of the boundaries of the nation-state. This article examines how digital caste networks serve as border-spanning caste diaspora by drawing on Steven Vertovec’s conceptualization of a diaspora. The analysis draws on ethnographic data to analyze the case of theCyber Thiyyars of Malabar, a digital caste network that seeks to mobilize members of the Thiyya caste by foregrounding regional affiliations with Malabar.

How can linguists contribute to the refugee crisis? Issues and responses

In 2007, Steven Vertovec introduced the term super-diversity as a way to describe new patterns of migration in the United Kingdom that surpassed anything the country had experienced in the past. Although this term’s usefulness in identifying a completely new and different state of affairs at the linguistic level is still controversial, there is little doubt that the consequences of migration have acquired a new urgency and topicality for the receiving countries. Ever since 2007, a series of ...