Transnationalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Transnationalism is a social movement grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people all around the world and the loosening of boundaries between countries.

The term was coined in the early 20th century by writer Randolph Bourne to describe a new way of thinking about relationships between cultures.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Transnationalism vs. internationalism 3 See also 4 List of transnational organizations 5 Further reading

[edit] Overview

Transnationalism has social, political, cultural, and economic impacts that affect people all around the globe. It has been greatly fostered by developments in telecommunications (particularly the Internet), immigration, and most importantly globalization. It encourages change in and re-examination of concepts like citizenship, nationalism, and communitarianism.

Proponents of transnationalism seek to facilitate the flow of people, ideas, and goods between regions. They believe that it has increasing relevance with the rapid growth of globalization. They contend that it does not make sense to link specific nation-state boundaries with for instance migratory workforces, globalized corporations, global money flow, global information flow, and global scientific cooperation.

Transnationalism designates a recent shift in migration patterns. Migration used to be a rather directed movement with a point of departure and a point of arrival. It is nowadays increasingly turning into an ongoing movement between two or more social spaces. Facilitated by increased global transportation and telecommunication technologies, more and more migrants have developed strong transnational ties to more than one home country, blurring the congruence of social space and geographic space.

Diasporas, such as the overseas Chinese, are a historical precursor to modern transnationalism. However, unlike people with transnationalist lives, most diasporas have not been voluntary.

[edit] Transnationalism vs. internationalism

Very careful distinctions are now being made between international or multinational relationships - between and among nation-states or agents thereof - and transnational relationships between and among individuals and other entities, regardless of nation-state boundaries.

Internationalism refers to global co-operation between nation states, and points to the affairs between nation-state governments, while transnationalism refers to global co-operation between people, and points to activities, which transcends national boundaries and in which nation-state governments do not play the most important or even a significant role.

Furthermore transnationalism often entails a vision of the obliteration of nation states to make way for a unified world government. Transnationalism is closely related to cosmopolitanism. If transnationalism describes the individual experience, cosmopolitanism is the philosophy behind it.

Examples of internationalism include United Nations, international treaties, international customs and tariffs regulations. Examples of transnationalism include NGOs such as Greenpeace or Médecins sans Frontières, global financial activities, global science research, and global environmental concerns.

[edit] See also

• Citizenship
• Communitarian
• Cosmopolitanism
• Diaspora
• Global Citizens Movement
• Globalization
• Internationalism
• Multinational corporations
• Nation-states
• Nationalism

[edit] List of transnational organizations

• Médecins Sans Frontières
• Greenpeace
• The NSK State

[edit] Further reading

• Appadurai, Arjun: Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Delhi, India, Oxford University Press, 1997 - is critical of the construct of the nation-state and seek to propagate a greater use of transnational thought.

• Barkan, Elliott Robert, ed.: Immigration, Incorporation and Transnationalism, Somerset, New Jersey, USA, Transaction Publishers, 2003.

• Bourne, Randolph: "Trans-National America" in The Atlantic Monthly, #118 (July 1916), pp. 86-97, Boston, The Atlantic Monthly Group, 1916.

• Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo & Michael Peter Smith, eds., Transnationalism from Below, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, Transaction Publishers, 1997.

• Joerges, Christian; Inger-Johanne Sand & Gunther Teubner, eds.: Transnational governance and constitutionalism, Oxford, United Kingdom, Hart Publishing, 2004.

• Keohane, Robert O. & Joseph S. Nye, eds. Transnational relations and world politics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Harvard University Press, 1972 - locus classicus for the distinction in international relations.

• McKeown, Adam: Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, and Hawaii 1900-1936, Chicago, Illionis, USA, The University of Chicago Press, 2001 - offered a transnational look at Chinese immigrants and social links in the nineteenth century.

• Pries, Ludger, ed.: Migration and Transnational Social Spaces, Aldershot, United Kingdom, Ashgate, 1999.

• Robinson, William I.: "Beyond Nation-State Paradigms: Globalization, Sociology, and the Challenge of Transnational Studies" in Sociological Forum, Vol. 13, No 4, pp. 561-594, New York City, USA, 1998.

• Sassen, Saskia: Cities in a World Economy, Thousand Oaks, California, USA, Pine Forge Press, 2006 - more detailed analysis of the transnational phenomenon, with elaborate examples, is contained in the writings of Saskia Sassen.

• Tarrow, Sidney: The new transnational activism, New York City, USA, Cambridge University Press, 2005.