Rethinking Transnationalism

During the last two decades transnationalism has become an important conceptual approach and research programme. However, the term has steadily become vague and indistinct underlining the need for conceptual précising as well as more defined empirical research. Rethinking Transnationalism does this in two ways. On one hand it presents theoretical contributions to the transnationalism approach and, on the other hand, it offers empirical studies in the field of the transnationalization of organizations. The book integrates outstanding international scholars of transnationalism and migration studies with specialists from a broad variety of disciplines that apply the transnationalism approach to different organizations such as NGOs, feminist networks, educational spaces and European Works Councils. Presenting an overview of transnationalism and the surrounding debates, this interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to students and scholars of Politics, International Relations, Sociology, Anthropology, Educational Sciences, Migration and Geography.

This book presents theoretical contributions to the transnationalism approach and offers empirical studies in the field of the transnationalization of organizations.

The world is becoming more transnational. This edited collection examines how the immense transnational changes in the contemporary world are being produced by and are affecting different men and masculinities. It seeks to shift debates on men, masculinities and gender relations from the strictly local and national context to much greater concern with the transnational and global. Established and rising scholars from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America explore subjects including economies and business corporations; sexualities and the sex trade; information and communication technologies and cyberspace; migration; war, the military and militarism; politics; nationalism; and symbolism and image-making.

Transnational Architecture and Urbanism combines urban planning, design, policy, and geography studies to offer place-based and project-oriented insight into relevant case studies of urban transformation in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. Since the 1990s, increasingly multinational modes of design have arisen, especially concerning prominent buildings and places. Traditional planning and design disciplines have proven to have limited comprehension of, and little grip on, such transformations. Public and scholarly discussions argue that these projects and transformations derive from socioeconomic, political, cultural trends or conditions of globalization. The author suggests that general urban theories are relevant as background, but of limited efficacy when dealing with such context-bound projects and policies. This book critically investigates emerging problematic issues such as the spectacularization of the urban environment, the decontextualization of design practice, and the global circulation of plans and projects. The book portends new conceptualizations, evidence-based explanations, and practical understanding for architects, planners, and policy makers to critically learn from practice, to cope with these transnational issues, and to put better planning in place.

The rise of China has brought about a dramatic increase in the rate of migration from mainland China. At the same time, the Chinese government has embarked on a full-scale push for the internationalisation of Chinese media and culture. Media and communication have therefore become crucial factors in shaping the increasingly fraught politics of transnational Chinese communities. This book explores the changing nature of these communities, and reveals their dynamic and complex relationship to the media in a range of countries worldwide. Overall, the book highlights a number of ways in which China’s "going global" policy interacts with other factors in significantly reshaping the content and contours of the diasporic Chinese media landscape. In doing so, this book constitutes a major rethinking of Chinese transnationalism in the twenty-first century.

After American Studies is a timely critique of national and transnational approaches to community, and their forms of belonging and trans/patriotisms. Using reports in multicultural psychology and cultural neuroscience to interpret an array of cultural forms—including literature, art, film, advertising, search engines, urban planning, museum artifacts, visa policy, public education, and ostensibly non-state media—the argument fills a gap in contemporary criticism by a focus on what makes cultural canons symbolically effective (or not) for an individual exposed to them. The book makes important points about the limits of transnationalism as a paradigm, evidencing how such approaches often reiterate presumptive and essentialized notions of identity that function as new dimensions of exceptionalism. In response to the shortcomings in trans/national criticism, the final chapter initiates a theoretical consideration of a postgeographic and postcultural form of community (and of cultural analysis).

Includes statistical tables.

Contributors from diverse disciplinary, ideological, and theoretical perspectives, examine the multiple aspects and dimensions of globalization. By employing a variety of methodological approaches, the authors provide insights into the role of numerous agents in furthering the process and project of present and future globalization(s), as manifested in economic, political and cultural domains. Furthermore, they address the impacts of globalization in nation-states, emancipatory feminist and environmental movements, and migrant communities, as well as identify their participation in and opposition to the phenomena of globalization.