IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v45y2017i2p171-184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Diasporas and conflict: distance, contiguity and spheres of engagement

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Van Hear
  • Robin Cohen

Abstract

Diasporas are now well-established players in the global political economy, yet their role in conflict and post-conflict settings remains controversial. Diasporas have variously been described as war-mongers, peace-builders, or ambivalent in their influence on conflict. We suggest that this variety of characterizations might be explained by disaggregating forms of diaspora engagement and the public and private spaces in which they occur into three ‘spheres of engagement’. We then go on to consider two variants of conflict-related diasporas: ‘distant diasporas’, alluding particularly to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Somalia, and ‘contiguous diasporas’, referring mainly to the Russian-speaking peoples in the former Soviet Union but also to groups like the Kurds spread across several nation-states. We show that different forms and levels of engagement generate varying levels of demand on diasporan households. Differences of wealth, resources, social capital and class also influence the capacity of diasporas to engage in conflict and post-conflict roles.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Van Hear & Robin Cohen, 2017. "Diasporas and conflict: distance, contiguity and spheres of engagement," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 171-184, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:45:y:2017:i:2:p:171-184
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2016.1160043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13600818.2016.1160043
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13600818.2016.1160043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Mariani & Marion Mercier & Thierry Verdier, 2018. "Diasporas and conflict," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 761-793.
    2. Jean-Marie Nkongolo-Bakenda & Elie V. Chrysostome, 2020. "Exploring the organizing and strategic factors of diasporic transnational entrepreneurs in Canada: An empirical study," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 336-372, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:45:y:2017:i:2:p:171-184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.