Diasporic Civic Organizations (DCOs), cyberspace, and superdiverse places: Bangladeshi Canadians in Toronto

Abstract

This dissertation examines how diasporic civic organizations (DCOs) navigate the intersecting dynamics of superdiversity, digitization, and urban inequality through a case study of Bangladeshi Canadians in Toronto. Drawing on mixed methods, including census analysis, institutional ethnography, and cyberethnography, the research investigates how DCOs respond to economic marginalization, intergenerational tensions, and shifting forms of civic engagement across both neighbourhood spaces and cyberspace. Grounded in critical human geography, this research examines superdiversity by foregrounding structural inequalities and civic invisibility within highly diverse urban settings. It situates DCOs within the third sector and interprets their practices through Polanyian concepts of reciprocity and the double movement, alongside Gibson-Graham’s framework of diverse and solidarity economies. The findings show that DCOs play a vital role in fostering social support, economic resilience, and cultural belonging, while simultaneously contending with resource constraints, labour precarity, and the uneven demands of digital transformation. The dissertation demonstrates that digitization has both expanded and complicated diasporic civic engagement, reshaping organizational forms, outreach strategies, and transnational networks. However, these transformations are deeply conditioned by existing social and spatial inequalities. By linking place-based experiences with digital practices, this research offers a multi-scalar understanding of how DCOs operate as critical forms of collective support and resistance. Ultimately, it contributes to scholarship on migration, diaspora, and urban studies by highlighting the adaptive capacities and limitations of grassroots organizations in building more inclusive and equitable futures in superdiverse places.