Research of Urmila Goel / Research Project: The virtual second generation

In the course of the research project: The virtual second generation on the internet portal  Indernet I have written several articles and have given several presentations. In the following I arrange the English publications according to topic:

On the research project

• "The virtual second generation - An own space on the internet" (als pdf), in: Klaus Voll und Doreen Beierlein (Hrsg. 2006), Rising India - Europe's Partner?, Berlin: Weißensee Verlag, 1154-1160 (also on: http://www.migrationeducation.org/).
• "The virtual second generation: negotiating ethnicity on the internet" (als pdf), in: IIAS Newsletter, 39, December 2005, 19.

On question of methodology:

• "‘From the German Periphery – On Ethnographic Explorations of Indian Transnationalism Online’, in Ajaya K. Sahoo & Johannes G. de Kruijf, eds. Indian Transnationalism Online: New Perspectives on Diaspora (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 63–80.

On people marked as Indians in Germany

A critical discussion of the concept of an 'Indian' community:

• "‘From the German Periphery – On Ethnographic Explorations of Indian Transnationalism Online’, in Ajaya K. Sahoo & Johannes G. de Kruijf, eds. Indian Transnationalism Online: New Perspectives on Diaspora (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 63–80.
• "Indians in Germany’ - The imagination of a community" (as pdf), in: UNEAC Asia Papers, No. 20, 2007.

More general on the migration history:

• "Germany", in: Brij Lal (2005, eds.), Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora, Singapur: Edition Didier Millet, 358-360.
  Disclaimer: The published version contains changes to my original version, which were not authorised by me and from which I distance myself.

Compare also:

• Desis in Germany

Internet studies

In September 2005 I attended the workshop Internationalizing Internet Studies in Brisbane, Australia. Following article is the outcome of the discussions:

• “The German internet portal Indernet – A space for multiple belongingness”, Gerard Goggin and Mark McClelland (eds., 2009), Internationalizing Internet Studies, New York: Routledge, 128-144.

A space of the second generation

My central arguement is that the internet portal Indernet provides an own space without racist exclusion. This interpretation I developed first in 2005 and then in 2012 looked at the long-term bond of the users:

• "Fatima and theinder.net - A refuge in virtual space" (als pdf), in: Angelika Fitz, Merle Kröger, Alexandra Schneider und Dorothee Wenner (Hsg. 2005), Import Export - Cultural Transfer - India, Germany, Austria, Berlin: Parthas Verlag 201-207.
• "The virtual space of belongingness Indernet - A long-term observation", Paper presented at Digital Crossroads, Utrecht, 29.06.12.

Norms and Boundaries

While the Indernet provides an own space, it also reproduces norms and boundaries. The claims and contestations of 'Indianness' are discussed in:

• "'Half Indians', Adopted 'Germans' and 'Afghan Indians' - On claims of 'Indianness' and their contestations in Germany" (as pdf), in: Transforming Cultures eJournal, Vol. 3, No. 1, February 2008.

The reproduction of normative gender and sexuality are discussed in an essay:

• (Re)producing heteronormativity online - the case of a German-Indian internet portal

Representation

On the Indernet respresentation is a central topic. I dicuss the images of India produced and represented in:

• "Imagining India Online: Second-Generation Indians in Germany" (as pdf), in: Jörg Esleben, Christina Kraenzle and Sukanya Kulkarni (eds., 2008), Mapping Channels between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 210-232.

For the Conference:"The Borderpolitics of Whiteness" in Sydney, Australia in December 2006 I prepared a paper on the dilemmas between establishing a secure own space and the wish to represent to 'white' Germans. This paper has not yet been published and needs to be worked on some more:

• “’Indian’ dance parties in ‘Germany’ – The (in)compatibility of refuge and representation”

Transnational spaces

The Indernet is located in a transnational space, while it is very much localised in Germany, as I discuss in:

• "‘From the German Periphery – On Ethnographic Explorations of Indian Transnationalism Online’, in Ajaya K. Sahoo & Johannes G. de Kruijf, eds. Indian Transnationalism Online: New Perspectives on Diaspora (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), pp. 63–80.
• "The Indernet - A German network in a transnational space" in: Remus Gabriel Anghel, Eva Gerharz, Gilberto Rescher und Monika Sazlbrunn (2008, Hrsg.), The Making of World Society - Perspectives from Transnational Research, Bielefeld: transcript, 291-309

Ethnographic material

The research project is based on participant observation on- and offline as well as interviews. One of my students kept an English-language online diary of her observations:

• Alexandra Florea, Research diary, 2005, Viadrina

Much more information and material can be found in the German version.