The Transnational Studies Reader: Intersections and Innovations

In recent years, 'transnationalism' has become a key analytical concept across the social sciences. While theoretical approaches to the study of global social phenomena have traditionally focused on the nation-state as the central defining framework, transnational studies views social experience as a complex and dynamic product of multiple regional, ethnic, and institutional identities. Far from being static or bounded by national borders, social, political, and economic forces operate on supra-national, trans-regional, and trans-local scales and scopes. Transnational studies compares and contrasts these dynamics to rethink assumptions about identity, sovereignty, and citizenship. Assembling writings from some of the most important theorists in history, politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies, The Transnationalism Reader explores the ways that transnational practices and processes in different domains, and at different levels of social interaction, relate to, and inform each other. It also compares the spatial organization of social life during different historical periods. Coherent in its vision and expansive in its disciplinary, geographic, and historical coverage, The Transnationalism Reader is a field-defining collection.

Table of Contents:
1. 'Constructing Transnational Studies: An Overview' Peggy Levitt and Sanjeev Khagram Section 1: The Broad Foundations 2. 'Transnational Relations and World Politics: An Introduction Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye 3. 'Conclusion' and 'Post Scriptum' in Dependency and Development in Latin America Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto 4. 'The Homeland, Aztlán' Gloria Anzaldúa 5. 'Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology' Arjan Appadurai 6. 'The Real New World Order' Anne Marie Slaughter 7. 'Introduction' and 'State and Global City' from Globalization and Its Discontents Saskia Sassen Section 2: Methodological Practices 8. 'Discipline and Practice: "The Field" as Site, Method Akil Gupta and James Ferguson 9. 'Methodological Nationalism, The Social Scienes, and the Study of Migration: An Essay in Historical Epistemology' Andreas Wimmer and Nina Glick Schiller 10. 'Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants' Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, Alejandro Portes, and William Haller 11. 'Introduction' from Forces of Labor: Workers’ Movements and Globalization Since 1870 Beverly J. Silver 12. 'Transnational Struggles for Water and Power' and 'Dams, Democracy, and Development in Transnational Perspective' Sanjeev Khagram Section 3: Historical Perspectives 13. 'Breakthrough to History' William H. McNeill 14. The World System in the Thirteenth Century: Dead-End or Precursor? Janet Abu-Lughod 15. 'The Historical Sociology of Race' Howard Winant. 16. 'The Black Atlantic as a Counterculture of Modernity' Paul Gilroy Section 4: Questions of Identity 17. 'Of Our Spiritual Strivings' W.E.B. DuBois 18. 'The Cosmopolitan Perspective: Sociology in the Second Age of Modernity' Ulrich Beck 19. 'The Nation-State and its Others: In Lieu of a Preface' Khachig Tölölyan 20. 'Nigerian Kung Fu, Manhattan Fatwa' and 'The Local and the Global: Continuity and Change' Ulf Hannerz 21. 'Introduction: Transnational Feminist Practices and Questions of Postmodernity' Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan Section 5: Migrating Lives and Communities 22. 'Transnational Projects: A New Perspective' and 'Theoretical Premises' Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, and Cristina Szanton Blanc 23. 'The Local and the Global: Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism' Michael Kearny 24. 'The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Energized Research Field' Alejandro Portes, Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Patricia Landolt 25. 'Transnational Perspectives on Migration: Conceptualizing Simulaneity' Peggy Levitt and Nina Glick Schiller Section 6: Religious Life Across Borders 26. 'Systemic Religion in Global Society Peter Beyer 27. 'Religion, States, and Transnational Civil Society' Susanne Hoeber Rudolph 28. 'Theorizing Globalization and Religion' Manual A. Vásquez and Marie Friedmann Marquardt Section 7: Arts and Culture 29. 'Locations of Culture' Homi Bhabha 30. 'Interstitial Subjects: Asian American Visual Art as a Site for New Cultural Conversations' Elaine H. Kim 31. 'Cultural Reconversion' Néstor García Canclini (translated by Holly Staver) 32. 'Living Borders/Buscando América: Languages of Latino Self-Formation' Juan Flores (with George Yúdice) Section 8: The Diffusion of Idesa, Values, and Culture 33. 'World Society and the Nation State John Meyer, John Boli, George M. Thomas, and Francisco O. Ramirez 34. 'Norms, Culture and World Politics: Insights from Sociology's Institutionalism' Martha Finnemore 35. 'Do Regimes Matter: Epistemic Communities and Mediterranean Pollution Control' Peter Haas 36. 'Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket' Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson 37. 'Transnationalism, Localization, and Fast Foods in East Asia' James Watson Section 9: Corporations, Classes, and Capitalism 38. 'Introduction', from Transnational Corporations and World Order George Modelski 39. 'Imperialism, Dependency, and Dependent Development' Peter Evans 40. 'The Organization of Buyer-Driven Global Commodity Chains: How U.S. Retailers Shape Overseas Production Networks' Gary Gereffi 41. 'Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality' and 'Afterword: An Anthropology of Transnationality' Aihwa Ong Section 10: Non-State Actors, NGOs, and Social Movements 42. 'Bringing Transnational Relations Back In: Introduction' Thomas Risse-Kappen 43. 'World Culture in the World Polity: A Century of International Non-Governmental Organization' John Boli and George Thomas 44. 'Social Movements and Global Transformation' Louis Kriesberg 45. 'Conclusions: Advocacy Networks and International Society' Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink 46. 'The Challenges and Possibilities of Transnational Feminist Practice' Nancy A. Naples Section 11: Security, Crime, and Violence 47. 'Global Prohibition Regimes' Ethan Nadelmann 48. 'Transnational Organized Crime: An Imminent Threat to the Nation State?' Louise Shelley 49. 'Introduction', from New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era Mary Kaldor 50. 'Smuggling the State Back In: Agents of Human Smuggling Considered' David Kyle and John Dale