Although diasporas and globalisation are distinct phenomena, the outcome of their combination is a potent one. As far as communications are concerned, the transnationalisation of the media has enhanced and intensified the relationship between diasporas and globalisation processes. Electronic media increasingly link producers and audiences across national boundaries and initiate processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation of diasporic identities. In doing so they set in motion processes of reconfiguration of place, space and culture and have a considerable impact on the everyday. In this context, established notions of the nation-state, of tradition and heritage and of citizenship and modes of belonging are challenged and transformed.

The Colloquium aims to bring together academics to discuss these processes and their broader implications. In keeping with the traditions established in Colloquia organised with Euricom, the organisers do not wish to prioritise any particular method or approach within the scope of the overall topic. We would, however identify the following general themes as being particularly interesting to us:

• intersections of the transnational and the local in diasporic communications
• diasporic communications and diasporic identities
• diasporic audiences and diasporic cultural politics
• diasporic cultural production and consumption: the interplay between integration, cultural separatism and hybridity
• diasporic cultural practices