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‘Platoon’ Friendship of the Soviet Academic Diaspora
Author(s) -
Isaakyan Irina
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2010.01080.x
Subject(s) - diaspora , friendship , platoon , nationalism , gender studies , sociology , narrative , homeland , emigration , media studies , political science , social science , law , art , literature , control (management) , politics , management , economics
This article responds to Brubaker's (2005) concerns about the ‘“diaspora” diaspora’ effect on sociology of national identity and migration, and the related thought by Kaplan (2007) about a national community as something more tangible and close‐knit than just ‘imagined’ by Anderson (1991). I refer to the ideas of the occupational ‘platoon’– derived from Shils (1957) and Hearn (2006)– and platoon friendship as representing the occupation–friendship–nationalism conflation. Having conducted narrative‐biographic interviews with twenty‐five Russian academics now residing in the United Kingdom and the United States, I look at how they understand their new, diasporic spaces as impacted by their Soviet platoon friendship – a feature that could be used as a criterion for recognising a putative diaspora.