Based on an ethnographic study of mobilisations of the Comorian diaspora in Marseille during political and cultural events, the book examines communitarisation in relation to three thematic areas, namely spaces, cultural markets and local politics. Drawing on Foucault's concept of the dispositif, the author analyses mobilisations of postcolonial diaspora as part of a dispositif of communitarisation, that is, a set of discourses, practices, institutions and subjectivations of diasporic community. She argues that constructions of 'community' are both shaped by and shape ethnicised biopolitics, expressed by modes of governing diasporic groups along ethnicised divisions and a marking of ethnicised communities as the Other of the French Republic. The performativity of a Comorian community brought into being through political, cultural, economic and customary practices also shows how Comorian communities govern themselves along ethnicised categories, at the intersection with generation, gender, age classes, locality and class. Communitarisation processes as part of ethnicised (self-)governing reveal postcolonial power relations in France as well as practices of negotiation and contestation on the part of Comorian communities. This book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of critical diaspora studies, critical ethnography, discourse and dispositif analysis, postcolonial politics, and the African diaspora.

"Parkett" continues its 25th anniversary with a text by Marina Warner on the Trans-Atlantic cable; a persuasive argument by Richard Phillips for the faux-naif painter Adolf Dietrich (1877-1957); and Philip Kaiser's examination of the Met's recent "Pictures Generation "show. London-based Cerith Wyn Evans is perhaps best known for his hypnotic neon signs; as Michael Archer notes, Walter Benjamin saw content not just in the sign but in its reflection. Both Pablo Lafuente and Jan Verwoert name London's magnetic fields of the 1970s as a major influence. Katharina Fritsch is best known for her monochromatic figures cast in plaster. Jessica Morgan sees these immaculately articulated forms as "amplifications," while Jean-Pierre Criqui responds to just the opposite: their ghostliness. Annette Kelm's photographs possess a frightening sense of obsolescence; according to Beatrix Ruf, their baffling stories begin with a detail that seems to have lost its potency. Kelley Walker's work embraces contradiction and contrast, as Johanna Burton witnessed upon viewing the eclectic collection of artifacts and memorabilia in his studio. Antek Walczak evaluates Walker's appropriation of the recycling logo, and Glenn Ligon addresses the anxiety behind his African-American imagery. Allen Ruppersberg supplies an insert for the issue.