Different Diasporas and the Hype of Hybridity

Abstract

In a progressive attempt to find sites of resistance to dominant hegemonies of race and nation, many cultural theorists have begun to rely on notions of in-betweenness and ambivalence, and terms such as diaspora and hybridity, However, in much of this recent cultural criticism, these concepts have become increasingly disarticulated from history and political economy. The fetishization of these terms, and the general overuse of abstract spatial metaphors such as ‘third space’, can lead to theories and politics which neglect the everyday, grounded practices and economic relations in which social identities and narratives of race and nation unfold. Without denying the potential for resistance, it is argued in this paper that these abstract liminal spaces are easily appropriated by reactionary forces, and can be used for the purposes of capital accumulation quite as effectively as for the intervention in hegemonic narratives of race and nation.