The Transnational Society : A Social Theory of Cross Border Linkages

This book is the first of a work in two parts addressing the relations between the transnational society and the state. It is dedicated to the analysis and conceptualisation of transnational societies. This work moves beyond the mere depiction of transborder socialities by shedding light on the fundamental structures underpinning them. It investigates the mechanics of their formation and evolution, their demise or transformation into diasporas. It theorises transmigrants as plural humans embedded and socialised in multiple settings, and whose activities are sustained and framed by three key social institutions: transnational families, businesses and associations. It sheds light on the construction of an intersubjective moral framework regulating the relations between migrants and non-migrants. Finally, it examines the space-time continuum of transnational societies. Preface Contents Glossary List of Graphs Chapter 1: Introduction Cited References Chapter 2: The Dynamics of Transnationalism Transnational Deployment: How Practices and Flows Evolve Family, Businesses, Organisations: Migrant Social Institutions Transnational Families Organisations: From Community Service to Public Mobilisations, from Local to Transnational Commitments The Businesses of Migrants Diaspora and ‘Assimilation’: The Afterlife or End of Transnational Fields The Transitional Scenario: Divergences and Fault Lines The ‘Diaspora’ Scenario Cited References Chapter 3: Institutionalising the Transnational Migrants as ‘Plural Humans’ The Double Gift of Migration and Its Implications for Self-Identity The Migrant Subject as ‘Plural Human’ Polyphonic Transnational Practices Transnational Emergence: The Infra-politics of Transnationalism Institutionalisation of the Lifeworld The Problem of Convergence Migratory Social Institutions as Communicative Spaces An Example of a Convergence Dynamic: Migrants’ NGOs Cited References Chapter 4: Transnational Spaces Ecotones: The Spatial Imprint of a Transnational Society Defining Ecotones Insular Spaces Urban Ecotones: ‘Super-Diverse’ Cities, Border Cities, and Harbour Cities The Camps: A Migratory Non-place as Ecotone Transnational Life Space: A Space of Emergence A Relational Space Transnational Domestic Space Resonating Public Spaces Cited References Chapter 5: The Transnational Lifeworld: Moral Geography and Lived Time Territoriality or How Space Forms an Underpinning to Power Relations The Moral Geography of Transnationalism From Moral Geography to the Moral Economy of Transfers Transnational Lived Time Defining Lived Time From a Transnational Space-Time to a Diasporic Space-Time Cited References Chapter 6: Conclusion Cited References Cited References Index