Agents of Change
International workshop on the new governing of diasporas through development
Hornbækhus, Denmark, 10-12 February, 2010
Call for abstracts
While the term diaspora had limited use just a few decades ago, every migrant group today seems to claim to be a diaspora – just as states increasingly are reaching out to their diasporas. They have ministers of the diaspora, special rights for people of such and such an origin, diaspora conferences both ‘at home’ and ‘in the diaspora’. In the words of Roger Waldinger, diaspora ‘is a strategy or a project undertaken by a broad range of actors interested in what the people ready to think of themselves as members of a diaspora might be willing to do.’ Governments of sending and receiving countries, as well as international development institutions are currently in a process of discursively and practically involving migrants and migrant associations in development processes in their countries of origin. The emergence of the diaspora as a new and powerful position within the international development field represents a reconfiguration of development thinking and practice that has not been adequately explored. Likewise it represents a reconfiguration of the relationship between states and citizens beyond national boundaries.
The research programme Mobilising African Diasporas as Agents of Change at the Danish Institute for International Studies will be organising a three day workshop. The aim of the workshop is to bring together a small group of engaged researchers in order to present and discuss new, original research within the field of three themes: Governing diasporas, Emergence of diasporas as agents of change and Diasporic effects.
Deadline for abstracts: 15th September 2009. Due to limited space, only the most relevant abstracts, that relate to the workshop themes will be selected. Travel and living costs of participants will be covered by the programme.
Read more about the workshop themes and submission of abstracts here (pdf, 34,5 KB)
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