Appadurai extends his argument for disjuncture (in this case, the ‘nonisomorphism’
of the five flows [scapes]) through the concept of deterritorialization (pp. 37–8). Deterritorialization
plays an important role in his thinking, since it is simultaneously a process
in the actual world and a conceptual break. It is a break with the past (historical and
analytical) vision of social groups having definite, consistent, bounded home spaces.
Deterritorialization permits diaspora based ethnic politics to communicate and act
across the globe, and it enables the diffusion of mediascapes and ideoscapes beyond their
narrow origin places into global networks. And, importantly, deterritorialization makes
the normal functioning of nation-states problematic and contingent, since their prime
challengers are transnational ethnic movements (pp. 39–40).