Transnational
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Transnational (or transnationalism) focuses on the heightened interconnectivity between people all around the world and the loosening of boundaries between countries. Transnationalism has social, political and economic impacts that affect people all around the globe.
Very careful distinctions are now being made between international or multinational -- relationships between and among nation-states -- and transnational -- relationships between and among individuals and other entities, regardless of nation-state boundaries.
The concept has been greatly fostered by developments in telecommunications (particularly the Internet), immigration and most importantly globalization. The growth of the transnational concept encourages re-examination and change in areas such as citizenship, nationalism and the concept of the communitarian.
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 migratory workforces, globalized corporations, global money flow, global information flow and global scientific cooperation (among other examples).
Related concepts
Transnational is often linked to internationalism but differs in the sense that internationalism proper refers to global co-operation between nation states, while transnationalism aims to global co-operation between peoples, and the obliteration of nation states.
Whereas international includes the dealings between the government of one nation-state with the government of another nation-state, or of several nation-states, transnational covers activity which transcends national boundaries and in which nation-state governments do not play the most important or even a significant role.
Examples of international include United Nations, international treaties, international customs and tariffs regulations. Examples of transnational include the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace or Médecins sans Frontières, global financial activities, global science research and global environmental concerns.
Transnationalism is closely related to cosmopolitanism. If transnationalism describes the individual experience, cosmopolitanism is the philosophy behind it. Transnational life styles could be precursor to a cosmopolitan world government.
Diasporas, such as the overseas Chinese are a historical precursor to modern transnationalism. However, unlike people with transnationalist lives, many diasporas have not been voluntary.
It is now used differently from its original conception in international relations and international law and international trade and sociology.
Further reading
- Transnational is a concept formed in the early twentieth century by writer Randolph Bourne, to describe a new way of thinking about relationships between cultures.
- Additionally, authors such as Arjun Appadurai (in his book Modernity at Large) are criticle of the construct of the nation-state and seek to propagate a greater use of transnational thought.
- Adam McKeown's recent Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change offered a transnational look at Chinese immigrants and social links in the nineteenth century.
- Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Michael Peter Smith, "The Locations of Transnationalism." Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Michael Peter Smith, editors, "Transnationalism From Below." Transaction Publishers. 1998.
- More detailed analysis of the transnational phenomenon, with elaborate examples, is contained in the writings of Saskia Sassen and increasingly in those of many other writers in the fields mentioned and linked above.
See also
- Citizenship
- Communitarian
- Cosmopolitanism
- Diaspora
- Globalization
- Internationalism
- Multinational corporations
- Nation-states
- Nationalism
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