Pan-national identities: Representations of the Philippine diaspora on the world wide web

This paper shows how the world wide web can facilitate the transformation of a trans-national identity into a global, or pan-national identity. Specific to the Philippines diaspora is the concept of tahanang, or home as a metaphor for a pan-national Philippine identity. Not only does the web facilitate the spatial interactions of diasporic communities but it also fosters the representation of national identity. In the case of the Philippine diaspora we find that social networking, via the web, operates at and through a variety of spatial scales, including intra-diasporic, inter-diasporic, diaspora-host, and diaspora-homeland.