Diaspora

=Definition=

toc Diaspora (Ancient Greek, "scattering or sowing of seeds") is defined as the existance of various communities, usually of a particular ethnicity, culture, or nation, scattered across places outside of their land or origin or homeland. There are, for instance, large diasporic communities of Jews throught the world, and of East Indians in Canada. Work in diaspora studies has stressed the complexity of such communities, who not only negotiate memor and nostalgia for original homelans, but have the shared histories of migration, displacement, and hybrid identity of other local diaspora communities.
 * The people of one culture dispersed into other countries
 * Implies maintaining of ties across these borders and continued attachment to original homeland
 * Bonds of attachment may be cultural, religious, economic and political

=**Conditions of Diasporas**=

//Voluntary Dispersal//


 * To find work
 * To pursue trade or business opportunities
 * To futher colonial ambitions
 * To advance quality of life (e.g. education, culture, healthcare)


 * //Involuntary Dispersal//**


 * Economic deprivation (e.g. hunger, business decline)
 * War
 * Political repression
 * Religious or ethnic persecution

=Types of Diasporas=

[|Armenian Dispora] [|African Diaspora] [|Chinese Diasporas] [|French Canadian Diaspora] [|Irish Diasporas]

=Types of Diasporas in the Digital Age=

There are many types of diasporas around the world. One type of diaspora that the [|UN] is trying to work with to bridge the digital divide is the entrepreneurs of African descent. The initiative is guided by a Global Advisory Committee (GAC) comprised of African ICT entrepreneurs from the Diaspora, ICT experts and representatives of the private sector and the UN system. The UN is trying to use the expertise and opportunities of the diasporic entrepreneurial communities to educate the women of Africa. The main goal of this project is to bridge the general digital divide and the digitial divide within the genders. In January 2002 in New York, [|UNIFEM] launched its Digital Diaspora initiative to build strategic partnerships between African IT entrepreneurs in the Diaspora and women's organizations and business associations in Africa. The initiative is aimed at harnessing the financial resources, IT and business expertise of Africans in the Diaspora to tackle the challenges of feminized poverty. It seeks to undertake projects that empower women economically through capacity building in the use of ICTs, identifying business opportunities, creating business partnerships, and providing access to finance as well as building the knowledge-base on ICTs for poverty alleviation.

Some of the key objectives of this project are:


 * Provide an opportunity for participants to learn from some innovative approaches to using ICT for gender responsive poverty eradication and development in Uganda.
 * Explore the specificity of the gender digital divide in Africa and learn about strategies and experiences that have been used to enhance women's access to ICT and IT female entrepreneurship in Africa;
 * Share information and ideas about the programme for bridging the gender digital divide through strategic partnerships with a wider audience;
 * Expand partnership opportunities with governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, donors and UN Agencies towards implementing the initiative.

=Works Cited=

Cartwright, Lisa and Marita Sturken. Practices of Looking: An introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford, 2001

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