Panel 26: Transnationalism and Struggles over Citizenship around the Indian Ocean
Panel organiser: Preben Kaarsholm (Roskilde Univ., Denmark)
Contact: preben@ruc.dk
| The panel will focus on political and cultural dynamics within the Indian Ocean world, and on the contradictions brought about by globalization between potentials for violent conflict (e.g. in the form of xenophobic attacks, confrontations between ‘indigenes’, ’settlers’ and ‘strangers’, or of ‘fundamentalist’ violence) and for new forms of mediation, dialogue and understanding (e.g. in the form of transnational networks facilitating trade, migration and communications between multiple ‘homes’). This is an ambiguity that plays itself out not least in the context of population movements and of contestations around citizenship involving transnational cultural mobilisation and the articulation of identity strategies. It impacts on the nature and constitution of local civil societies and their interaction with the state, and it introduces new challenges of security and governance that cut across national boundaries. The outcomes of the research will help to elucidate new transnational scenarios of mobilization and conflict, the changing nature of understandings of citizenship, the constitution and internal dynamics of ‘actually existing’ civil societies, and the possibilities for development interventions to interact with these. |