Abstract
Drawing on recent data from the UK Iranian diaspora, this chapter explores the role that British-Iranian organisations, particularly ‘supplementary’ schools, (can) play in processes of cosmopolitanisation. I argue that a particular type of interaction between diasporic organisations and host nation organisations opens up a ‘sweet spot’—a space of praxis neither fully controlled by the diaspora nor by the nation-state—in which the ‘cultural excess’ of both the diaspora and the nation-state becomes ‘stripped away’, leaving the potential for cosmopolitan practices and discourses. These processes are exemplified by what I refer to as ‘diasporic education’, which also provides concrete tools for cosmopolitanisation. A more radical implication of my argument is that ‘being diasporic’, as a normal and constant feature of human life and a unique mode of agency, is the most potent mode of praxis for undoing essentialist hegemonies at both diasporic and national levels as we move towards a cosmopolitan future.
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Notes
- 1.
Gaibazzi’s chapter in this volume shows that the home society as well as those who ‘stay behind’ play a far more central and productive role in the life of the diaspora than we may have previously appreciated.
- 2.
For a detailed coverage including demographic information, see Gholami 2015.
- 3.
One TV presenter, for example, declared that the Qur’an has less value than pornography (Gholami 2015: 136).
- 4.
I interviewed her at Rustam School in November 2014.
- 5.
This was her estimate but is difficult to verify as official numbers do not exist.
- 6.
The first day of spring (vernal equinox), which also marks the New Year in Iran and other Persianate cultures.
- 7.
Other important celebrations, including sizdah-be-dar and Charshanbe souri, are undergoing a similar process but cannot be discussed due to lack of space.
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Gholami, R. (2017). The ‘Sweet Spot’ Between Submission and Subversion: Diaspora, Education and the Cosmopolitan Project. In: Carment, D., Sadjed, A. (eds) Diaspora as Cultures of Cooperation. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32892-8_3
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