Translocal Geographies

Bringing together a wide range of original empirical research from locations and interconnected geographical contexts from Europe, Australasia, Asia, Africa, Central and Latin America, this book sets out a different agenda for mobility - one which emphasizes the enduring connectedness between, and embeddedness within, places during and after the experience of mobility. These issues are examined through the themes of home and family, neighbourhoods and city spaces and allow the reader to engage with migrants' diverse practices which are specifically local, yet spatially global. This book breaks new ground by arguing for a spatial understanding of translocality that situates the migrant experience within/across particular 'locales' without confining it to the territorial boundedness of the nation state. It will be of interest to academics and students of social and cultural geography, anthropology and transnational studies.

Opening a dialogue between the literary and filmic works produced in Central Europe and in the Anglophone world, this volume explores the role of affects and emotions such as shame, fascination and withdrawal in contemporary literature and culture.

Re-energising debates on the conceptualisation of diasporas in migration scholarship and in geography, this work stresses the important role that geographers can play in interrupting assumptions about the spaces and processes of diaspora. The intricate, material and complex ways in which those in diaspora contest, construct and perform identity, politics, development and place is explored throughout this book. The authors ’dismantle’ diasporas in order to re-theorise the concept through empirically grounded, cutting-edge global research. This innovative volume will appeal to an international and interdisciplinary audience in ethnic, migration and diaspora studies as it tackles comparative, multi-sited and multi-method research through compelling case studies in a variety of contexts spanning the Global North and South. The research in this book is guided by four interconnected themes: the ways in which diasporas are constructed and performed through identity, the body, everyday practice and place; how those in diaspora become politicised and how this leads to unities and disunities in relation to 'here' and 'there'; the ways in which diasporas seek to connect and re-connect with their 'homelands' and the consequences of this in terms of identity formation, employment and theorising who 'counts' as a diaspora; and how those in diaspora engage with homeland development and the challenges this creates.

Discourse-based approaches to studying organizations have grown in significance over the last 25 years. This accessible and insightful book exemplifies how to use a discursive approach to study organizations. By drawing on her own empirical research, Cynthia Hardy aligns key theoretical assumptions with a range of case studies to demonstrate the value and adaptability of a discursive approach.

Translocality in Contemporary City Novels responds to the fact that twenty-first-century Anglophone novels are increasingly characterised by translocality—the layering and blending of two or more distant settings. Considering translocal and transcultural writing as a global phenomenon, this book draws on multidisciplinary research, from globalisation theory to the study of narratives to urban studies, to explore a corpus of thirty-two novels—by authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dionne Brand, Kiran Desai, and Xiaolu Guo—set in a total of ninety-seven cities. Lena Mattheis examines six of the most common strategies used in contemporary urban fiction to make translocal experiences of the world narratable and turn them into relatable stories: simultaneity, palimpsests, mapping, scaling, non-places, and haunting. Combining and developing further theories, approaches, and techniques from a variety of research fields—including narratology, human geography, transculturality, diaspora spaces, and postcolonial perspectives—Mattheis develops a set of cross-disciplinary techniques in literary urban studies.

This international edited collection contributes to knowledge about the geographies of sexualities experienced and imagined in rural spaces. The book draws attention to the heterogeneity of rural contexts and the diversity of meanings about sexualities within and across these spaces. The collection examines four key themes. First, ‘Intimacies and Institutions’ focuses on how intimate relationships are governed by societal, discursive and institutional structures, and regulated by social, political and legal frames of citizenship and belonging. The chapters present historical and contemporary case studies of the constitution and management of intimate sexual lives and relationships in rural and non-metropolitan spaces. Second, ‘Communities’ explores how sexual identities are socially-constructed and relationally-performed in rural communities, scrutinizing the complex interplay of belonging and alienation, inclusion and exclusion, for sexual subjects and communities within rural spaces. Analyzing films, literature and interviews, the chapters examine sexuality and community, and “queer” notions of rural family and community. Third, ‘Mobilities’ examines movement/migration at different scales. Cross-national data provides insights into similarities and differences in rural migration and homemaking for lesbians, gay men and same-sex families. The chapters consider how movement, coming out and memories of time and place inflect home, identity and belonging for rural lesbians and gay men. Fourth, ‘Production and Consumption’ investigates the commodification of rural sexualities. The chapters interrogate the management of animal bodies and sexualities in industrial agriculture for consumer pleasure and commercial ends; how heterosexuality and sexual relations are transacted in mining communities; and the global commodification of rural masculine sexualities. This book is timely. It provides important new insights about ruralities and sexualities, filling a gap in theoretical and empirical understandings about how sexualities in diverse rural spaces are given meaning. This collection begins the processes of furthering discussion and knowledge about the inherently dynamic and constantly changing nature of the rural and the multiple, varied and complex sexual subjectivities lived through corporeal experiences and virtual and imagined lives.

Ethno-Architecture and the Politics of Migration explores the interface between migration and architecture. Cities have been substantially affected by transnational migration but the physical manifestations of migration in architecture – and its effect on streetscape, neighbourhood and city – have so far been understudied. This contributed volume examines how migrants interact with, adapt, and construct new architecture. Looking at the physical, urban and cultural impact of these changes on a variety of sites, the authors explore architecture as an identity category and investigate what buildings and places associated with migration tell us about central questions of belonging, culture, community, and home in regions such as North America, Australia and the UK. An important contribution to debates on place identity and the transformation of places as a result of mobility and globalised economies in the 21st century.

“Digital culture” reflects the ways in which the ubiquity and increasing use of digital devices and infrastructures is changing the arenas of human experience, creating new cultural realities. Whereas much of the existing literature on digital culture addresses the topic through a sociological, anthropological, or media theoretic lens, this book focuses on its geographic aspects. The first section, “infrastructures and networked practices” highlights the integration of digital technologies into everyday practices in very different historical and geographical contexts—ranging from local lifeworlds, urban environments, web cartographies up to global geopolitics. The second section on “subjectivities and identities” shows how digital technology use possesses the capacity to alter the subjective, perceptive, and affective engagement with the spatial world. Finally, “politics and inequalities” investigates the social and spatial disparities concerning digital technology and its use. This book draws attention to the deep interconnectedness of the cultural, digital, and spatial aspects of everyday practices by referring to a broad range of empirical examples taken from tourism, banking, mobility, and health. Scholars in human geography, anthropology, media and communication studies, and history will find this research indispensable reading. It addresses both young and seasoned researchers as well as advanced students in the aforementioned disciplines. The wealth of examples also makes this publication helpful in academic teaching.