Description: Following the developments that highlight the centrality of diasporas and transnational studies, this book proposes that the study of exile should become a topic of central concern, closely related to basic theoretical problems and controversies on the structure of power, national representation and transnational displacement.
Brief description: Luis Roniger is Reynolds Professor of Latin American Studies at Wake Forest University. A comparative political sociologist, his work focuses on the interface between politics, society and public culture.
Review Quotes: "Exile has had a profound impact on political ideologies. Distance from the country of origin, the inevitable weakening of social ties that accompany emigration, and the passage of time lead to a re-evaluation of the institutions and culture left behind, and of the political practices in which exiles had engaged in the past. Interaction with the host society, even if limited by the desire to limit new attachments, is also consequential. Paradoxically, a weak insertion in the new social environment is conducive to the development of comprehensive and nuanced appraisals of its institutions and culture. The joint effect of these new visions may pull exiles in different directions: toward extremism or the political center, toward totalitarianism or democracy. This volume will contribute to the understanding of how transnational political and cultural processes, a key one of which is precisely the experience of exile, interact with national processes in determining the direction of institutional change." --From the Series Editor's Preface by Carlos Waisman