Community sector dynamics and the Lebanese diaspora: Internal fragmentation and transnationalism on the Web

Abstract

The author analyses the presence of Lebanese organizations on the Web and shows the transnational links between associations from different countries, starting from a case study that includes France and Canada. The nature and density of these connections are partly attributable to the importance of linguistic, religious and/or political factors. The graphs indicate that, while there is a real attempt to transcend the divisions in the diaspora cyberspace, the fragmentation of collective dynamics remains important. The most important alliances revolve around a few individual portals and some institutional websites. However, the weakness of the Lebanese government does not allow its institutions to play a unifying role for the Lebanese diaspora. In fact, economic initiatives are more active than political ones. The connections between websites claiming to be apolitical show the persistence of selective alliances, which reflect the usual Christian/Muslim divide. Transnationality is thereby limited, and the Lebanese Canadian and French organizations are interconnected only through portals that are not representative of the grassroots community dynamics.