Diasporic grief and grievance on-line: how South African and Serbian diasporas use the web

Abstract

This paper explores the political and psychological angles of white South African and Serbian diasporas' discourses on-line. On the basis of textual analysis of diasporic web-sites we aregue that participants speak of ongoing grievance over the loss of their countries and assert that they have been the victims of "unjust" history and globalisation. Each online discourse articulates claims of belonging not on the grounds of, for example, citizenship or multiculturalism, but rather on the basis of "a victim-hood", "civilisation", and "grief".