Showing papers in "Global Networks-a Journal of Transnational Affairs in 2010"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the handling of "neoliberalism" within three influential strands of heterodox political economy: the varieties of capitalism approach, historical materialist international political economy; and governmentality approaches.
Abstract: Across the broad field of heterodox political economy, ‘neoliberalism’ appears to have become a rascal concept – promiscuously pervasive, yet inconsistently defined, empirically imprecise and frequently contested. Controversies regarding its precise meaning are more than merely semantic. They generally flow from underlying disagreements regarding the sources, expressions and implications of contemporary regulatory transformations. In this article, we consider the handling of ‘neoliberalism’ within three influential strands of heterodox political economy – the varieties of capitalism approach; historical materialist international political economy; and governmentality approaches. While each of these research traditions sheds light on contemporary processes of market-oriented regulatory restructuring, we argue that each also underplays and/or misreads the systemically uneven, or ‘variegated’, character of these processes. Enabled by a critical interrogation of how each approach interprets the geographies, modalities and pathways of neoliberalization processes, we argue that the problematic of variegation must be central to any adequate account of marketized forms of regulatory restructuring and their alternatives under post-1970s capitalism. Our approach emphasizes the cumulative impacts of successive ‘waves’ of neoliberalization upon uneven institutional landscapes, in particular: (a) their establishment of interconnected, mutually recursive policy relays within an increasingly transnational field of market-oriented regulatory transfer; and (b) their infiltration and reworking of the geoinstitutional frameworks, or ‘rule regimes’, within which regulatory experimentation unfolds. This mode of analysis has significant implications for interpreting the current global economic crisis.
1,375 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored dominant discourse on "trafficking as modern slavery" in relation to the many legal and social fetters that have historically been and are today imposed upon individuals who are socially imagined as free.
Abstract: This article explores dominant discourse on ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ in relation to the many legal and social fetters that have historically been and are today imposed upon individuals who are socially imagined as ‘free’. It argues that discourse on ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ revitalizes the liberal understandings of freedom and restriction that have historically allowed vigorous moral condemnation of slavery to coexist with the continued imposition of extensive, forcible restrictions on individuals deemed to be ‘free’. In place of efforts to build political alliances between different groups of migrants, as well as between migrants and non-migrants, who share a common interest in transforming existing social and political relations, ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ discourse inspires and legitimates efforts to divide a small number of ‘deserving victims’ from the masses that remain ‘undeserving’ of rights and freedoms.
169 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the location patterns of firms that provide specialized advanced producer services (APS) to international commodity chains that move through seaports are analyzed and the authors conclude that while port-related APS activities predominantly follow the world city hierarchy, a number of port cities stand out because they act as nodes in global commodity flows and as centres of advanced services related to shipping and port activities.
Abstract: In this article we analyse the location patterns of firms that provide specialized advanced producer services (APS) to international commodity chains that move through seaports. Such activities can take place in world cities or in port cities. The analysis of APS location patterns in port cities provides a good opportunity to integrate the study of world cities into the framework of Global Production Networks. Based upon our empirical findings, we conclude that while port-related APS activities predominantly follow the world city hierarchy, a number of port cities stand out because they act as nodes in global commodity flows and as centres of advanced services related to shipping and port activities. Based on these empirical findings we address future avenues of research.
155 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the identity-belonging of transnational knowledge workers, a diverse group of serially migrating career professionals who have spent extended periods of time in at least three countries, usually following career opportunities.
Abstract: In this article I explore what I call the 'identity-belonging' of trans- national knowledge workers, a diverse group of serially migrating career professionals who have spent extended periods of time in at least three countries, usually following career opportunities. Unlike most recent writing on trans- nationalism, which focuses on enduring connections of migrants with their 'home' countries/places, here I explore a transnationalism that may transcend the national, and generally the territorial, principle, with repercussions for identity-belonging. In this context, how transnational knowledge workers position themselves towards belonging to a nation and towards the idea of cosmopolitanism is of particular interest. From data collected through in-depth interviews in Australia and Indonesia, I conclude that their globally recognized profession forms the central axis of their identity-belonging, alongside a weak identification with their nation of origin. The feeling of belonging to and identifying with particular locales and local communities was articulated flexibly and instrumentally in association with professional and wider social networks, while no primordial territorial attachments could be identified.
107 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the links between return migration, belonging and transnationalism among migrants who returned from the Netherlands to northeast Morocco and found that transnationalist practices played a vital role in reconstructing post-return belonging.
Abstract: In this article we explore the links between return migration, belonging and transnationalism among migrants who returned from the Netherlands to northeast Morocco. While transnationalism is commonly discussed from the perspective of a receiving country, this study shows that transnationalism also plays a vital role in reconstructing post-return belonging. Return migration is not simply a matter of ‘going home’, as feelings of belonging need to be renegotiated upon return. While returnees generally feel a strong need to maintain various transnational practices, the meanings they attach to these practices depend on motivations for return, gender and age. For former (male) labour migrants, transnational practices are essential for establishing post-return belonging, whereas such practices are less important for their spouses. Those who returned as children generally feel uprooted, notwithstanding the transnational practices they maintain. The amount of agency migrants are able to exert in the return decision-making process is a key factor in determining the extent to which returnees can create a post-return transnational sense of home.
105 citations
TL;DR: There are two literatures that explicitly describe spaces of flows that constitute contemporary globalization: world city network analysis and global commodity chain analysis as mentioned in this paper, and the possibilities of their integration by returning to their common origins in world-systems analysis are explored.
Abstract: There are two literatures that explicitly describe spaces of flows that constitute contemporary globalization: world city network analysis and global commodity chain analysis We explore the possibilities of their integration by returning to their common
origins in world-systems analysis Each model is described and critiqued and it is argued that each can be used to address some of the other’s limitations This is illustrated through
world city process additions to understanding the coffee commodity chain and commodity chain additions to understanding Mexico City and Santiago’s positioning in the world city network This complementarity is just a first step towards a more complete integration; the conclusion provides necessary next steps towards just such a research agenda
102 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a case study carried out in the greater Munich area provides evidence that the region can be regarded simultaneously as a hierarchically organized polycentric mega-city region and a high-grade localized system of value chains.
Abstract: With the aim of identifying emerging patterns of spatial development and the driving forces behind the associated process, in this article we draw together two threads of interlinked phenomena. First, we look at how multi-location firms from the knowledge economy develop their intra-firm networks internationally. Second, we establish the partners with which these firms have working relationships along individual chains of value, and in which these extra-firm linkages are located. We start from a conceptual background that combines the location behaviour of firms with a value chain approach. We analyse the two main pillars of the knowledge economy – advanced producer services (APS) and high-tech firms. A case study carried out in the greater Munich area provides the empirical basis and draws on quantitative and qualitative research methods. The results provide evidence that the greater Munich area can be regarded simultaneously as a hierarchically organized polycentric mega-city region and high-grade localized system of value chains.
96 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore a set of network relations between advocacy groups in the UK and local 'choice' advocates in India, and some of the emerging impacts of local and transnational advocacy on the politics of education and education policy in India.
Abstract: This article is about the flows of rhetorics and discourses, particularly those that advocate choice and private schooling, and the role that transnational advocacy networks played in managing and driving these flows. We explore a set of network relations between advocacy groups in the UK and the USA and local 'choice' advocates in India, and some of the emerging impacts of local and transnational advocacy on the politics of education and education policy in India. The network advocates school choice and private schooling as solutions to the problem of achieving universal, high-quality primary education. Individual policy entrepreneurs are active in making these connections and circulating ideas. A complex of funding, exchange, cross-referencing, dissemination and mutual sponsorship links the Indian choice and privatization advocacy network, and connects it to a global network for neoliberalism organizations in other countries.
91 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a cosmopolitan renewal of the social sciences means and how will it be possible in the age of climate change and globalization, which requires taking account of the unbounding of both equality and inequality, and an awareness of the end of the opposition between society and nature.
Abstract: Climate change globalizes and radicalizes social inequality; it exacerbates inequalities of rich and poor, core and periphery, and at the same time dissolves them in the face of a common threat to humanity. Climate change combines with the inequalities arising from globalization, decoupling the producers and subjects of risk. Remapping inequality in the age of climate change and globalization therefore requires taking account of the unbounding of both equality and inequality, and an awareness of the end of the opposition between society and nature, one of the founding principles of sociology. The article outlines four theses of inequality, climate change and globalization, and concludes with the question: what does a cosmopolitan renewal of the social sciences mean and how will it be possible?
89 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the possible cross-fertilization between two prominent analytical frameworks: the World City Network framework, in which researchers have studied the emergence of a globalized urban system for the provision of a host of advanced corporate services; and the Global Commodity Chain framework, where researchers have scrutinized the inter connected functions, operations and transactions through which specific commodities are produced, distributed and consumed in a globalised economy.
Abstract: The purpose of this special anniversary issue is to assess the possible cross-fertilization between two prominent analytical frameworks: the World City Network framework, in which researchers have studied the emergence of a globalized urban system for the provision of a host of advanced corporate services: and the Global Commodity Chain framework, in which researchers have scrutinized the inter connected functions, operations and transactions through which specific commodities are produced, distributed and consumed in a globalized economy. These two approaches have developed in parallel but have rarely been brought together. This introductory essay identifies the common roots and recent history of these two frameworks, and outlines how the six articles contribute to their theoretical and empirical cross-fertilization.
89 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors offer a sympathetic critique of recent attempts to forge a dialogue between Global Commodity Chain (GCC) and World City Network (WCN) approaches to global economic change.
Abstract: This article offers a sympathetic critique of recent attempts to forge a dialogue between Global Commodity Chain (GCC) and World City Network (WCN) approaches to global economic change. While broadly supportive of the endeavour, we make three observations about this ongoing project. First, we question the utility of emphasizing the common roots of these approaches in World Systems Theory given that both have subsequently moved into new epistemological terrain and, additionally, that the language of core and periphery seems ever less pertinent to global economic realities. Second, we seek to highlight the potential dangers of essentializing the global system as one that is primarily shaped by certain kinds of connections – namely the intra-firm relationships of advanced producer service firms – between certain kinds of cities – namely the leading tiers of global cities. Third, we point to the need to expand the interpretations of relationality within global networks to include a wider variety of actors, particularly beyond the corporate realm, and to explore the dynamic power relations between those actors. We also discuss the methodological challenges of expanding the purview of research in this way. This commentary has been stimulated by the articles in the special issue of Global Networks on ‘World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains’.
TL;DR: In this article, the role of urban places and their ability to attract, manage and redirect flows in such networks is clarified by re-examining classical concepts of spatial interaction and reorganization in human geography, with particular reference to centrality and intermediacy.
Abstract: The emerging discourses on world cities and Global Commodity Chains are valuable spatial frameworks for conceptualizing globalization and its spatial consequences. However, both discourses have one thing in common: they neglect the territorial and thus physical dimension of global flows. Hence, in this article I take the perspective of material flows to reconnect the discourses on cities and chains. I aim to clarify the role of urban places and their ability to attract, manage and redirect flows in such networks. I do so by re-examining classical concepts of spatial interaction and reorganization in human geography, with particular reference to centrality and intermediacy. The case of seaports and port cities is further explored to demonstrate the concrete conflicts and opportunities that arise with chain developments and insertion. To determine the relative position of places with regard to global chains and flows, Sheppard's concept of ‘positionality’ is discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose five analytic operations that help in generating a larger frame that can encompass at least some foundational aspects of global city analysis and Global Commodity Chains analysis.
Abstract: The article proposes five analytic operations that help in generating a larger frame that can encompass at least some foundational aspects of global city analysis and Global Commodity Chains analysis. Given the author's research, the ground from which this task is taken on here is the city. To do this requires going beyond the narrow empirical component that is at the centre of this special issue, namely World City Networks (WCNs). The five analytic propositions range from the problematic of incomplete knowledge for global actors, one shared by actors in the WCN and in the GCC, to that of the locational correlates of command functions, which can be as diverse as functions concentrated in headquarters to functions distributed across the chain of operations. The article concludes by asking what a focus on the city and its messiness adds to what is basically an analysis of the current phase of global capitalism (rather than an urban theory as is often assumed).
TL;DR: The authors describes the settlement of these circular migrants and demonstrates how it is a process of returning to the home society that entails limited integration in the host society; they are routinely segregated in time and space, and their departure is marked by a carefully-planned ceremony, or sayonara party.
Abstract: One feature of globalization is the growing number of temporary labour migrants, but their experience of settlement does not always fit the dominant perspective of transnational migration. Unlike transnational migrants, circular migrants tend not to be equally entrenched in home and host societies, but instead hold feelings of greater affinity for the home society. They engage in repeated short periods of work abroad, an example being migrant Filipina entertainers in Tokyo, Japan. This article describes the settlement of these circular migrants and demonstrates how it is a process of returning to the home society that entails limited integration in the host society; they are routinely segregated in time and space. Migrant Filipina entertainers start thinking about their departure almost as soon as they arrive, and their departure is marked by a carefully-planned ceremony, or sayonara party. Questioning the assumption in the literature that circular migrants will eventually become permanent residents, in this article I call for the formulation of new theoretical frameworks that better capture the qualitatively distinct experiences of circular migrants.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore forward linkages of producer service firms in Mexico City, showing that there are important service flows to companies responsible for the globalization of the Mexican economy.
Abstract: In this article I assert that global cities are critical nodes in Global Commodity Chains because it is from them that producer services are provided. I explore forward linkages of producer service firms in Mexico City, showing that there are important service flows to companies responsible for the globalization of the ‘Mexican’ economy. Based on this finding I also indicate reasons why Mexico City is ‘on the map’ of global cities and of Global Commodity Chains. I argue that both access to local knowledge and close contact to clients are key factors. A third issue dealt with is the position of Mexico City in the geography of governance of commodity chains. The analysis suggests that it is useful to break up global city functions into the management of the world economy and into its command and control, because Mexico City is certainly a place for the former, while the scope of influence exercised from the city is rather limited.
TL;DR: In this paper, sustainability norms are crystallized, institutionalized and fixed in material and social structures, and thus will likely have some permanency, and these sustainability norms indeed restructured and patterned this global mega event.
Abstract: If one interprets sustainability as an attractor, it means that across time and place notions and ideas of sustainability structure, order and pattern institutions and practices One can effectively explore the idea that sustainability is turning into a global attractor through mega events As high profile and very visible happenings that attract worldwide attention, it is difficult to ignore common and widely shared norms on sustainability in the route towards such events In investigating the 2008 Beijing Olympics I conclude that sustainability norms indeed restructured and patterned this global mega event Moreover, these sustainability norms are crystallized, institutionalized and fixed in material and social structures, and thus will likely have some permanency
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss how the children of Italian migrants have created their own cultural repertoires of Italianita and belonging within Switzerland and with co-ethnic peers, and how, for some, this sense of belonging evokes the wish for "roots migration", the relocation to the parents' homeland.
Abstract: Many descendants of migrants grow up in the context of lively transnational social relations to their parents' homeland. Among southern Italian migrants in Switzerland, these relations are imbued with the wish to return among the first generation, a dream fostered since the beginning of their migration after the Second World War. Second-generation Italians have developed different ways of negotiating the transnational livelihoods fostered by their parents on the one hand, and the wish for local attachments on the other. In this article I discuss how the children of Italian migrants have created their own cultural repertoires of Italianita and belonging within Switzerland and with co-ethnic peers, and how, for some, this sense of belonging evokes the wish for ‘roots migration’, the relocation to the parents' homeland. With the example of two trajectories of local attachment and transnationalism among members of the second generation of the same origin, I question existing work on the second generation that assumes commonalities among them on the grounds of ethnicity and region of origin.
TL;DR: The Compartamos case is important because it allows us to glimpse global finance, and the question of global financial governance, as a decentred process in formation as mentioned in this paper, and it implies the importance of analyses that can make global finance visible as a diverse and mundane object that is never settled in any final kind of way.
Abstract: In the spring of 2007 an event dramatically reshaped conversations relating to microfinance. This event was the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Mexico's largest microfinance organization, Compartamos. The IPO, as this article suggests, is indicative or a broader trend through which microfinance is increasingly becoming financialized, increasingly becoming governable as a financial object. This is important at one level because it crystallizes some of the key issues at stake as microfinance becomes increasingly more reliant on global capital markets. At another level, however, the Compatarmos case is significant because of the conceptual issues it raises in relation to global finance. The main argument I put forward in this article is that the Compatarmos case – and the process of financialization it represents – is important because it allows us to glimpse global finance, and the question of global financial governance, as a decentred process in formation. Drawing on a Foucauldian notion of governmentality, I argue that the Compatarmos case orbits around two processes; processes of incorporation and differentiation. In this context, the Compartamos case implies the importance of analyses that can make global finance visible as a diverse and mundane object that is never settled in any final kind of way.
TL;DR: This article explored the nature of identity in the contemporary transnational family and extended lifecourse scholarship by considering Bauman's liquid modernity thesis and introducing the concept of a liquid life path.
Abstract: In this article, we explore the nature of identity in the contemporary transnational family. To do this we extend lifecourse scholarship by considering Bauman’s liquid modernity thesis and introducing the concept of a liquid life path. Original empirical examples drawn from our work among South American migrants and their families living in London and northern England illustrate diverse patterns of identification; everyday practices and social norms associated with maintaining split families, including parenting and remitting, coalesce around liquid life paths. We describe how these life paths turn on and reproduce a set of spatial and temporal imaginaries. We also reflect on the implications of these fluid imaginaries for our
understanding of transnational familyhood.
TL;DR: The authors argued that the legal status of the person or diaspora organization concerned, as well as the country of origin and the host country have a larger influence on the type of transnationalism than the label "migrant" or "refugee".
Abstract: The past decade has seen the rapid development of transnationalism research, but transnationalism from below in situations of mass refugee influx has received little attention. However, the case study of Burmese refugees in Thailand clearly demonstrates that those refugees can maintain economic, social, cultural and political links with co-nationals in all the domains of the refugee diaspora, even if their capabilities are in principle strained. It is argued here that the legal status of the person or diaspora organization concerned, as well as the country of origin and the host country have a larger influence on the type of transnationalism than the label ‘migrant’ or ‘refugee’. The concept of transnationalism should thus be conceived in a more encompassing sense, both geographically, thematically and including all emigrants regardless of their original motivations for migration. The article is based on fieldwork, including over 150 interviews with Burmese refugees and political activists.
TL;DR: The authors examined post-Soviet migrant women's relationships with Turkish men and the ways these are regulated in Turkey, and found that intimate practices of marriage and performances of "love" have emerged as key aspects of transnational mobility.
Abstract: The study of migration too often ignores the ways that labour migrants' emotional entanglements and complicated personal relationships factor into their experiences of being people on the move. In examining post-Soviet migrant women's relationships with Turkish men and the ways these are regulated in Turkey, in this article I consider how intimate practices of marriage and performances of ‘love’ have emerged as key aspects of transnational mobility. These intimate practices both enable long-term transnational circuits between post-Soviet homelands and Turkey, and attest to the way global capitalism is redefining personal lives.
TL;DR: In this article, a combination of the literatures on WCN and GCC can contribute to a broader conceptualization of the connections and connectivities of global cities, and a combined approach will improve our understanding of globalization processes within many so-called "third-world" cities that are experiencing booms in export-oriented industrialization and in migration from rural hinterlands as they are being integrated into Global Commodity Chains.
Abstract: Any analytical framework for understanding actual forms of the intensified incorporation of cities into the world economy needs to go beyond the exclusive focus on advanced producer services, which is characteristic of most of the World City Network (WCN) approach. Simultaneously, an account of the role of advanced producer services will strengthen Global Commodity Chain (GCC) analysis. A combination of the literatures on WCN and GCC can contribute to a broader conceptualization of the connections and connectivities of global cities. In addition, a combined approach will improve our understanding of globalization processes within many so-called ‘third-world’ cities that are experiencing booms in export-oriented industrialization and in migration from rural hinterlands as they are being integrated into Global Commodity Chains. We illustrate our argument with insights from GCC analyses of the electronics industry located in Ho Chi Minh City and the agricultural sector in its rural hinterland, the Mekong Delta.
TL;DR: In this article, a study conducted among middle-class immigrants in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, indicates that the importance of active transnational citizenship should not be over-stated.
Abstract: In this article we focus on local and transnational forms of active
citizenship, understood as the sum of all political practices and processes of identification. Our study, conducted among middle-class immigrants in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, indicates that the importance of active transnational citizenship
should not be overstated. Among these immigrants, political practices are primarily focused on the local level; political practices directed to the home country appear to be quite rare. However, although transnational activities in the public sphere are
rather exceptional, many immigrants do participate in homeland-directed activities in the private sphere. If we look at processes of identification, we see that a majority of the middle-class immigrants have a strong local identity. Many of them combine this local identification with feelings of belonging to people in their home country.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an institutional analysis of Chilean and Colombian transnational politics in Toronto to account for cross-group variation in transnational political practices and the formation of different types of transnational social fields of political action.
Abstract: We offer an institutional analysis of Chilean and Colombian transnational politics in Toronto to account for cross-group variation in transnational political practices and the formation of different types of transnational social fields of political action. The article is based on interviews conducted with Chilean and Colombian community activists and Canadian refugee rights and social justice activists. We use the concept of political culture to account for differences in Chilean and Colombian transnational politics and to explain the different kinds of relationships the two groups have developed with non-migrants. We introduce the concept of activist dialogues, understood as patterns of strategic political interaction between groups, to characterize how migrants and non-migrants read and navigate their interlocutors' ways of doing politics. We argue that variation in the character of activist dialogues results in different types of transnational social fields of political action. Chilean–Canadian activist dialogues reflect a convergence of political cultures and strategies of action; Colombian–Canadian activist dialogues are marked by a relationship in which there is a divergence of strategies of action. Convergent dialogues produce thicker and more stable transnational social fields. Divergent dialogues are associated with a series of ad hoc initiatives, the absence of stable and strongly institutionalized partnerships, and a thinner transnational social field of political action.
TL;DR: The authors examined two distinct types of homes of Italian immigrants in Melbourne and argued that these houses form tangible links within Italian-Australian social space, and are part of a network that constructs this transnational space.
Abstract: The transnational immigrant home is understood analytically, in an extensive literature, as a mobile construct that is not necessarily confined in its application to a single locale or building. The home has significant symbolic meaning for transnationals, as well as referring to their places of residence. In this study, however, we explore the physical structure of the transnational immigrant home and its materiality – the house. We examine two distinct types of homes of Italian immigrants in Melbourne – their past houses in Italy and their current houses in Melbourne. We argue that these houses form tangible links within Italian–Australian social space, and are parts of a network that constructs this transnational space. It is necessary to consider the actual materiality of such houses in order to extend the common understanding of ‘home’, seeing it not only as an abstract idea but also as a specifically located tangible structure and an active participant in the formation of transnational social spaces.
TL;DR: The authors conducted interviews with Arab American and British Arab activists to understand migrants' political subjectivities that avoid privileging any single geographical scale or location, and found that their use of ICT factors into, or not factor into, activists' activities.
Abstract: Current literature on migrant transnationalism highlights the role of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in facilitating lives that are situated simultaneously ‘here’ and ‘there’. Yet discussions of transnationalism and ICT obscure many complexities because of the tendency to focus on migrants' connections with ‘homeland’. In this article, we consider more broadly the spatiality of migrant activism and the different ways that ICT enters into it. Drawing on interviews conducted with Arab American and British Arab activists, we ask where is migrant activism geographically situated? How might their use of ICT factor into, or not factor into, activists' activities? In considering our respondents' diverse forms of activism, the multitude of aims and geographical orientations underpinning their activism, and their highly variable use of ICT, this article provides a variegated understanding of migrants' political subjectivities that avoids privileging any single geographical scale or location.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a multi-sited, ethnographic exploration of two UN-based multi-stakeholder arrangements that have contributed to the construction of the digital revolution as an object of global governance.
Abstract: The rapid growth of internet users and the importance of networked technologies for most spheres of life raise questions about how to foster and govern the digital revolution on a global scale. Focusing on internet governance and the use of ICTs for development purposes, I provide a multi-sited, ethnographic exploration of two UN-based multi-stakeholder arrangements – comprising governments, business and civil society groups – that have contributed to the construction of the digital revolution as an object of global governance. In this article I show how analytical insights from governmentality studies and actor-network theory can be used to capture how objects of governance and organizational arrangements are constructed and consolidated. Conventional approaches to networks and governance tend to treat organizational arrangements and issue areas as bounded, separate and fixed. By contrast, I demonstrate the merits of a practice-oriented, relational and agnostic research strategy, which foregrounds the governmental techniques and moments of translation involved when new objects and modes of governance are assembled and negotiated.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a framework for studying the transnational networks of minority members as a political phenomenon and propose a typology of networks organized along two major axes -the state in-border-cross-border axis and the ethnic or religious identity axis.
Abstract: In this article, I provide a framework for studying the transnational networks of minority members as a political phenomenon. I make two claims. First, it is necessary to take into account the state and its capacity to limit transnational networks if one is to capture, analytically, the full range of such networks. Second, it is important to extend the theoretical framework of transnationalism to include populations other than migrants and to account for networks established by national minority members whose loyalty to the state can be challanged. I offer a typology of networks organized along two major axes – the state in-border–cross-border axis and the ethnic or religious identity axis. These two axes yield different types of in-border and cross-border, intranational and transnational networks. I base these claims on an analysis of four case studies of cross-border and cross-ethnic networks maintained by Israeli Palestinian citizens in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This article explored the possibilities of their integration by returning to their common origins in world-systems analysis and argued that each can be used to address some of the other's limitations, and illustrated through world city process additions to understanding the coffee commodity chain and commodity chain additions to understand Mexico City and Santiago's positioning in the World City Network.
Abstract: There are two literatures that explicitly describe the spaces of flows that constitute contemporary globalization – World City Network analysis and Global Commodity Chain analysis. We explore the possibilities of their integration by returning to their common origins in world-systems analysis. Each model is described and critiqued and it is argued that each can be used to address some of the other's limitations. This is illustrated through world city process additions to understanding the coffee commodity chain and commodity chain additions to understanding Mexico City and Santiago's positioning in the World City Network. This complementarity is just a first step towards a more complete integration; the conclusion describes the next steps towards just such a research agenda.