Mavroudi, E. (2010). "Contesting identities, differences, and a unified Palestinian community." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28(2): 239-253.
This article engages directly with debates regarding the idea of community as a contested concept and their relevance for examining diasporic/migrant communities. The research is based on an in-depth qualitative case study using loosely structured interviews of diasporic Palestinians living in Athens, Greece. The article explores how diasporic Palestinians in Athens negotiate the politics of identity, belonging, and unity within their daily lives and stresses the importance of considering diasporic communities as fluid, positioned, and symbolic, in which negotiations of identity are actively carried out. The author argues that through the process of defining and defending who they are and where they belong, the Palestinian diaspora contests the relationships between community, territory, citizenship, and identity. The contested nature of community is examined through analysing the importance of community not only as a unifying space, but also as carrying the potential for tensions and constructions of difference.