Digital imagination and the ‘landscapes of group identities’: the flourishing of theatre, video and ‘Amazigh Net’ in the Maghrib and Berber diaspora

« Le sentiment d’être chez soi » sur les sites amazighs et le « printemps arabe » : déconstructions et renégociations sur le Web

“…Notre intérêt envers les discours artistiques et culturels amazighs sur le Web date du début des années 2000. Daniela Merolla 4 a débuté ses travaux sur ce sujet par une étude comparée des sites amazighs avec des sites consacrés aux diasporas africaines ; puis, à la fin des années 2000, ses recherches se sont orientées vers l'affirmation identitaire à travers l'oralité « digitale » et la production artistique 5 , en dialoguant avec d'autres recherches 6 ,notamment celles portant sur les revendications et l'activisme politiques 7 . Quant à Dahraoui, il a soutenu en 2014 sa thèse de doctorat sur la comparaison entre les chansons, les films et les sites Web rifains.…”

The Multisite Nation

“…A number of media such as cable and satellite television, ethnic TV programming, community radio, landline and cell phone, homeland and diasporic newspapers, and the Internet (blogs, forums, e-mail, and social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace) have all been used in a way that consolidates transnational interaction among nodes (Ogan 2001 ;Merolla 2002 ;Liu 1999 ;Paragas 2010 ;Proulx 2008 ). These media sustain crossborder social relations, provide channels for transnational communication, feed diasporic sites with news and information concerning other enclaves, and enhance the capacity of the expanded nation to maintain its coherence as a cultural group despite the dispersion of its members.…”

“…In the daily practices of the cosmonation, diasporans use the Internet to connect with the homeland, to alleviate their isolation, and to participate in virtual interaction with compatriots. Through these practices, they engage in a dual effort of integration in both the hostland and the cosmonational network (Liu 1999 ;Merolla 2002 ;and Gillespie 2000 ). Furthermore, the Internet is seen as a "communicative space" of the cosmonation, allowing members in dispersed sites to stay in touch with each other for support, mutual aid, friendship, or to participate in plans for helping the homeland or any of the diasporic sites or territories of the cosmonation (Tynes 2007 ;Hanafi 2005 ).…”

Mobilised diasporas: Kurdish and Berber movements in comparative perspective

“…The number of internet sites and listservs devoted to their matters has mushroomed, as has the uploading to YouTube of a full range of Amazigh and Kurdish-related events. These new technologies have enabled the dissemination of information and images, often in real-time, as well as stimulating discussion and contacts between activists worldwide (Merolla, 2002). If the building of modern imagined communities was made possible by the spread of print capitalism, the latest technological advances have taken imagined community-building to a whole new level.…”