Reimaging the Imagined Community

Abstract

This article offers an exploration of the diasporic public sphere in order to understand the processes by which identities are ascribed, resisted, or embraced. The author explores how American diasporans use place to narrate and construct the imagined community, documenting through interviews and observations made on three homeland tours the meanings that shape participants and participation in social collectivities for racial and ethnic minorities. Homeland tours are group travel packages that take individuals to destinations that they believe is their land of origin. The author examines the experiences of two specific cases of homeland tourism: Jewish Americans traveling to Israel and African Americans traveling to Ghana. The author presents two examples for each case that are specific to the homeland tour as well as general sites of tourism, demonstrating how experiences with place can create community. Homeland tourists act as a community, engaging in experiences that come to define the values, beliefs, and practices of the larger imagined diasporic community.

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