Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations

by Evangelia Tastsoglou, Vassiliki Cryssanthopoulou, Efrosini Gavaki, Helaine Harris, Anna Karpathakis

Overview

Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives is an interdisciplinary collection on women and gender in Greek diaspora communities. Using a variety of methodologies, including archival research, ethnography, participant observation, and quantitative analysis, the eleven contributors present in-depth and highly nuanced feminist analyses of diverse aspects of Greek diasporic experiences. The volume's geographical scope spans four continents (North America, Europe, Australia, Africa) and seven countries (USA, Canada, Germany, Greece, Australia, Egypt, Ethiopia), and touches on both contemporary and historical diasporic experiences.

Using the broad themes of women's labor, community activity, and identity as their organizing concept, the contributors intersect these issues with the concerns of ethnicity, class, generation,and masculinity. The country-specific case studies reveal women's intentionality and agency in labor, in building community institutions, and in negotiating and re-defining their identities. The broac range of contributor backgrounds make this book a valuable resource for anyone interested in gender, diaspora, labor, or modern Greek studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739125410
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/16/2009
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Evangelia Tastsoglou is professor and chair in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at St. Mary's University

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 En/Gendering the Greek Diaspora(s): Theoretical and Historical Considerations Part 2 Gender and Labor Chapter 3 Greek Migrant Women in Germany: Strategies of Autonomy in Diaspora Chapter 4 Women Networking for Families: Class, Gender, and Ethnicity in Job Searches among Greek Immigrants in New York Chapter 5 The Business of Social Change: Gender and the Ethnic Enclave Economy in the Greek Immigrant Community of Astoria Chapter 6 "The Temptations of New Surroundings": Family, State, and Transnational Gender Politics in the Movement of Greek Domestic Workers to Canada in the 1950s and 1960s Part 7 Gender and Diasporic Communities Chapter 8 The Greeks in Canada: Immigration, Socio-Economic Mobility, and Ethnic Identity Chapter 9 From Napster to MEGA: Power, Gender, and Generation in a Greek-Canadian Community Chapter 10 Women's Status in the Greek Colonies of Egypt Part 11 Gender and Identities Chapter 12 Living Diaspora "Back Home": Daughters of Greek Emigrants in Greece Chapter 13 Gender and Ethno-Regional Identity among Greek Australians: Intersections Chapter 14 Black Greeks or White Africans? Landscapes of Divergence and Poetics of Belonging

Editorial Reviews

The reader who associates “home” and “identity” with single nations will be fascinated by this gendered analysis of Greek families and communities around the world. The section on gender and labor and the section on gender and identity are must-reads for feminist scholars, regardless of their geographic fields.

Donna Gabaccia

In Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations, editor Evangelia Tastsoglou has collected 11 essays that offer insights into emerging issues relating to women’s lives in the Greek diaspora and the ways in which these inevitably influence men’s diasporic experience....The book’s importance lies in the fact that it is the first collection dedicated solely to women’s experiences, a subject which previous books on the Greek diaspora have touched upon only tangentially. This collection, which introduces a series dealing with women in the Greek diaspora, starts to fill important research gaps. It is especially the variety of issues discussed, ranging from media consumerism, motherhood, entrepreneurship and regionalism to return, which makes this book an important contribution to the study of (Greek) diaspora, Women’s Studies, and certainly (Modern) Greek Studies. Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations deserves to become a standard work in the study of women’s diaspora to which it brings new and exciting questions and insights.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

The reader who associates "home" and "identity" with single nations will be fascinated by this gendered analysis of Greek families and communities around the world. The section on gender and labor and the section on gender and identity are must-reads for feminist scholars, regardless of their geographic fields.--Donna Gabaccia, Professor of History and Director, Immigration History Research Center

In Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations, editor Evangelia Tastsoglou has collected 11 essays that offer insights into emerging issues relating to women's lives in the Greek diaspora and the ways in which these inevitably influence men's diasporic experience....The book's importance lies in the fact that it is the first collection dedicated solely to women's experiences, a subject which previous books on the Greek diaspora have touched upon only tangentially. This collection, which introduces a series dealing with women in the Greek diaspora, starts to fill important research gaps. It is especially the variety of issues discussed, ranging from media consumerism, motherhood, entrepreneurship and regionalism to return, which makes this book an important contribution to the study of (Greek) diaspora, Women's Studies, and certainly (Modern) Greek Studies. Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations deserves to become a standard work in the study of women's diaspora to which it brings new and exciting questions and insights.-- (05/23/2011)

From the Publisher

In Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations, editor Evangelia Tastsoglou has collected 11 essays that offer insights into emerging issues relating to women’s lives in the Greek diaspora and the ways in which these inevitably influence men’s diasporic experience....The book’s importance lies in the fact that it is the first collection dedicated solely to women’s experiences, a subject which previous books on the Greek diaspora have touched upon only tangentially. This collection, which introduces a series dealing with women in the Greek diaspora, starts to fill important research gaps. It is especially the variety of issues discussed, ranging from media consumerism, motherhood, entrepreneurship and regionalism to return, which makes this book an important contribution to the study of (Greek) diaspora, Women’s Studies, and certainly (Modern) Greek Studies. Women, Gender, and Diasporic Lives: Labor, Community, and Identity in Greek Migrations deserves to become a standard work in the study of women’s diaspora to which it brings new and exciting questions and insights.

Journal Of Ethnic and Migration Studies