Transnationalism from Below: Comparative Urban and Community Research / Edition 1

by Michael Peter Smith

Overview

Expansion of transnational capital and mass media to even the remotest of places has provoked a spate of discourse on transnationalism. A core theme hi this debate is the penetration of national cultures and political systems by global and local driving forces. The nation-state is seen as weakened by transnational capital, global media, and emergent supranational political institutions. It also faces the decentering local resistances of the informal economy, ethnic nationalism, and grass-roots activism. Transnationalism From Below brings together a rich combination of theoretical and grounded studies of transnational processes and practices, discussing both their positive and negative aspects.

The editors examine the scope and limits of transnationalism. The volume is divided into four parts: "Theorizing Transnationalism"; "Transnational Economic and Political Agency"; "Constructing Transnational Localities"; and "Transnational Practices and Cultural Reinscription." Contriburtors include Andre C. Drainville, Josephine Smart, Alan Smart, Minna Nyberg Sørensen, George Fouron, Nina Glick Schiller, Luin Goldring, Sarah J. Mahler, Linda Miller Matthei, Louisa Schein, David A. Smith, and Robert C. Smith. Moving easily between micro and macro analyses, this book expands the boundaries of the current scholarship on transnationalism, locates new forms of transnational agency, and poses provocative questions that challenge prevailing interpretations of globalization. Transnationalism From Below is a pioneering collection that will make a significant addition to the libraries of anthropologists, sociologists, international relations specialists, urban planners, political scientists, and policymakers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781560009900
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	01/30/1998
Series:	Comparative Urban and Community Research Series , #6
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Luis Eduardo Guarnizo is assistant professor of community studies and development at the University of California, Davis. He has researched and written extensively on transnationalism. He is co-author of Capitalistas del Tropico. His work has appeared in The Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, and Genera y Sociedad. Michael Peter Smith is distinguished research professor in Community Studies at the University of California, Davis. He is co-author of the award-winning book Citizenship across Borders, and is the series editor of Transaction’s Comparative Urban and Community Research book series.

Table of Contents

I. Theorizing Transnationalism 1. The Locations of Transnationalism 2. The Fetishism of Global Civil Society: Global Governance, Transnational Urbanism and Sustainable Capitalism in the World Economy 3. Theoretical and Empirical Contributions Toward a Research Agenda for Transnationalism II. Transnational Economic and Political Agency 4. Transnational Social Networks and Negotiated Identities in Interactions between Hong Kong and China 5. Transnational Lives and National Identities: The Identity Politics of Haitian Immigrants III. Constructing Transnational Localities 6. The Power of Status in Transnational Social Fields 7. Transnational Localities: Community, Technology and the Politics of Membership within the Context of Mexico and U.S. Migration IV. Transnational Practices and Cultural Reinscription 8. Narrating Identity Across Dominican Worlds 9. Belizean “Boyz ‘n the ‘Hood”? Garifuna Labor Migration and Transnational Identity 10. Forged Transnationality and Oppositional Cosmopolitanism

Editorial Reviews

This volume constitutes an extremely valuable contribution to the growing but all too often inadequately grounded literature on transnationalism. . . . It is regrettable that so few academic publications aspire to shape debates both among empirically-oriented researchers in the core social science disciplines and among postmodernists in cultural studies and related fields. This book offers an important exception to this trend and exemplifies the significant advances that can accrue from sophisticated integration of theory and data drawn from various intellectual traditions and research methodologies.” —Eric Hershberg, Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher