The argument offered in this book is that new technology, as opposed to traditional media such as television, radio, and newspaper, is working against the national grain to weaken its imagined community. Online activities and communications between people and across borders suggest that digital media has strong implications for different articulations of identity and belongingness, which open new ways of thinking about the imagined community. The findings are based on transnational activities by Kurdish diaspora members across borders that have pushed them to rethink notions of belonging and identity. Through a multidisciplinary and comparative approach, and multifaceted (online-offline) methodologies, the book unveils tensions between new and old media, and how the former is not only changing social relations but also exposing existing ones. Living in two or more cultures, speaking multiple languages, and engaging in transnational practices, diaspora individuals may have created a momentum that discloses how the imagined nation is diminishing in this digital era.

Presents original data on Kurdish diaspora communities to show how digital technologies are challenging traditional national identity Updates the "imagined community" conception of nations for the digital media age Utilizes a multidisciplinary approach and multifaceted methologies to examine the many dimensions of diasporic community

Autorentext
Jowan Mahmod completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. She obtained her BA and MA in Media and Communications at Uppsala University, Sweden. She has worked previously as a PR consultant, editor-in-chief, and editor.

Inhalt
Introduction .- 1. Multiculturalism Debates, Policies, and Concepts .- 2. Nations, Diaspora, Identity and Alternative Explorations .- 3. State Struggles in the Middle East and the Kurdish Diaspora .- 4. Is it OK? Challenging Gender Roles .- 5. Am I a Real Kurd? Deconstructing Kurdish Identity .- 6. My Kurdistan Chapter: Returning Home .- 7. Towards a Weakened Imagined Community