From exile to diaspora and from national to transnational binds under the driving forces of globalization

Abstract

The easiness with which borders are crossed, the ever increasing international flows and the free movement of capital or financial means across any given region of the globe, as well as the ease with which the citizen of the 21st century pictures oneself a citizen of the world, have challenged theorization to produce new epistemological instances able to conceptualize contemporary transformations. Ensuing, the present paper takes an informed look at the transitions from the categories of “exile” to “diaspora”, or from “international” to “transnational” as concepts better able to reflect the complex sociological changes at work in the 21st century. By use of classic and contemporary theorization, along with examples, the paper marks the gradual, but definite movement towards the latter categories.