Role Of Transnational Networks Research Articles

Transnational Entrepreneurship and the Role of Cultural Distance: Case Study Research on African Transnational Entrepreneurs

Purpose: While transnational entrepreneurship research considers its transcultural dimension, the role of vast cultural distance is largely ignored. Thus, this paper focuses on the following research question: how do the (cross-)cultural peculiarities of transnational entrepreneurship – in the light of cultural distance – influence the business development of transnational entrepreneurs? Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a qualitative empirical design that rests on case study research framed by the ‘Gioia’ method. Findings: The paper identifies specific cultural challenges, cross-cultural drivers and general assets impacting transnational business developments in the case of vast cultural distance as aggregate dimensions. Implications: Transnational entrepreneurship in cultural distant settings has to be particularly aware of personal adversities between transnational entrepreneurs and host country people, the role of transnational networks, as well as the role of hope and resilience of entrepreneurs. Originality/value: The findings contribute to literature through specifying the role of personal discrimination, a specific network category called ‘transnational networks’ and stabilizing factors like resilience and hope.

Second-Wave Women's Movements as Foreign Policy Actors: Assessing Canadian Feminist Interventions before 1995

AbstractThis article addresses second-wave feminist interventions in Canadian foreign policy debate with reference to two analytic streams: (1) political science and international relations (IR) perspectives since the late 1990s that stress the formal decisional aims of advocacy and the role of transnational networks in pressuring reluctant governments and (2) sociological approaches that underline movements’ cultural as well as statist dimensions and the significance of their domestic political strategies. Examining engagement by the Voice of Women (VOW) in nuclear weapons debates and National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) in free trade controversies confirms sociological expectations of campaigners’ varied claims and contributions and the importance of their political rootedness in Canada. Consistent with political science and IR arguments, the study finds NAC paid growing attention to international political opportunities in 1990 and following. The conclusion considers implications of the analysis and directions for future research.

'Ancient lore with modern appliances': networks, expertise, and the making of the Open Polar Sea, 1851-1853.

This article provides a transnational analysis of the campaigns for the organization of expeditions to the central Arctic region by the American explorer Elisha Kent Kane and the Prussian cartographer August Petermann between 1851 and 1853. By adopting a comparative approach, this study focuses on three interventions in the history of Arctic science and exploration: the construction of scientific expertise surrounding the relationship between the 'armchair' and the field, the role of transnational networks, and the significance of maps as travelling epistemic objects in the production of knowledge about the Arctic regions. In bringing both campaigns in conversation with each other, this article demonstrates that the histories of Kane's and Petermann's campaigns did not constitute isolated episodes but form part of a transnational nexus of imperial science and Arctic exploration in the nineteenth century. Moreover, based on research in libraries and archives in the United States, Germany and England, this study reconnects otherwise siloed collections and contributes new findings on the interpersonal networks of science and exploration. Finally, this article illustrates the importance of adopting comparative transnational approaches for understanding the fluid and reciprocal nature of Arctic science throughout the transatlantic world.

The networked refugee: The role of transnational networks in the journeys across the Mediterranean

AbstractThe experience of migrants crossing the Mediterranean has been represented as that of passive components of large‐scale human flows driven by conflicts, migration policies and smuggling. This article proposes a reflection on the advantages of using a social network lens to better understand these experiences at a micro‐ and meso‐level, bringing to the fore the personal and relational dimensions. By examining the narratives of people who reached the coasts of Sicily (Italy) via the Libyan route, the article highlights the key role of local and transnational ties at every single juncture of these very long, often serendipitous journeys. The concept of ‘journey’ is used to frame this analysis, but also to debunk some of the deterministic, static and Euro‐centred assumptions, which have characterized mainstream narratives and some scholarly debates. Thus, the refugee journey emerges as a fluid process characterized by the continuous deconstruction and reconstruction of social networks.

Faces da mesma moeda: imperialismo e racismo na consolidação da hegemonia dos Estados Unidos

O artigo apresenta o diálogo necessário entre as principais teorias do imperialismo e o engajamento dos Estados Unidos na ordem internacional contemporânea, enfatizando a instrumentalização de práticas de política externa flagrantemente racistas como modus operandi para a concretização do imperialismo estadunidense ainda no século XIX. Parte-se do pressuposto de que as teorias de relações internacionais, bem como a compreensão do papel desempenhado pelos Estados Unidos no sistema internacional contemporâneo, têm muito a absorver de conceitos caros às teorias do imperialismo (clássicas e contemporâneas), destacando para isto o debate sobre: a resistência ao ahistoricismo; o papel das redes e classes transnacionais nos realinhamentos de poder contemporâneo; o diálogo profundo entre a economia internacional e a política internacional; e a preponderância do Estado e seu papel ativo na condução das relações internacionais contemporâneas.

North Korean secondary asylum in the UK

The number of North Korean secondary migrants from South Korea has grown markedly in the last ten years. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory observation conducted between 2012-2017, this article explores the motivations for North Korean secondary migration and the role of transnational networks in the migration and settlement trajectory. Our findings suggest that many North Koreans in South Korea feel discriminated against due to their origins, and unable to engage in upward social mobility. We argue that North Korean secondary migration to the United Kingdom (UK) is not a linear process of push and pull factors but a highly reactive and unpredictable one that depends on information fed by brokers. The UK hosts one of the largest communities of North Koreans outside Northeast Asia. Most North Koreans in the UK are secondary asylum seekers from South Korea. Their life in the UK, however, comes with its own set of challenges, some of which mirror co-ethnic or ideological frictions among North Koreans themselves, with the Korean-Chinese, or with South Koreans. This paper contributes to debates on multiple migration, providing a migrant-centric perspective to answer why people who are offered material benefits in the country they arrive in choose to on-migrate to a place where life can be often more challenging.

Understanding climate change policy and action in Portuguese municipalities: A survey

Robust strategies and action-plans are essential in tackling climate change. Given the local and context-specific nature of climate impacts, the involvement of municipalities is key for effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Due to its vulnerability and low level of adaptive capacity, Portugal offers insights into adaptation research and practice in Europe. This article hypothesizes that National and European climate change adaptation strategies are not effectively involving municipalities, and are thus losing out on the opportunity to take stock of local responses for climate change mitigation and adaptation. To address this issue, a survey by questionnaire was done to Portuguese municipalities, and data was collected regarding the following: the importance attributed to climate change; the mitigation and adaptation measures planned and implemented; the main drivers, concerns, and triggers promoting climate policy and actions; and access to information and knowledge. 109 valid responses were collected across the country from a universe of 308 municipalities. Results show climate change in planning agendas is still ‘little’ or ‘not important’. There is also a clear difference in the drivers and concerns motivating climate policy, and action between Littoral and Inland regions. Overall, there is a greater focus on mitigation than adaptation. The discussion highlights the need for capacity building, the issue of equity, the role of European networks, and the relevance of cultural differences between Littoral and Inland regions. The conclusion distils the main lessons learned concerning these challenges and needs, the role of transnational networks, and the cultural contexts for building resilience, through adaptation, across Europe.

Civilising Globalism: Transnational Norm-Building Networks as a Lever of the Emerging Global Legal Order?

Decentralised, self-organised cross-border activities are increasingly shaping global policy-making. While state actors have lost ground, civil society and economic networks that operate transnationally have emerged as key actors, transforming international relations as well as national spheres. Academic discourse often focuses on ‘advocacy networks’ and on the role of transnational actors within the transformation of the world economy and world polity. In contrast, this article's theoretical as well as empirical framework expands the focus to include the role of transnational networks in norm-building and norm-implementation. The networks under scrutiny here do not confine themselves to the articulation of particular interests, the resolution of particular conflicts, or compliance with legal norms. They are fundamentally concerned with the creation of norms, which this article presents and reflects upon in terms of an emerging global democratic potential. One of the main characteristics of modern democratic thinking is the fundamental nexus of voice (democratic participation) and entitlement (legal and social rights and duties). This nexus, while born under the guidance of the nation-state, has been weakened or even broken due to what the article analyses as ‘decentration’. This same process of decentration, understood more expansively as ‘networked decentration’, seems to contribute to a hitherto unknown emergence and effectiveness of transnational norm-building networks as a new resource for the development of a democratised world polity.

Civilising Globalism: Transnational Norm-Building Networks - A Research Programme

Decentralised, self-organised cross-border activities are increasingly shaping global policymaking. While state actors have lost ground, policy and economic have emerged as key actors, transforming international relations as well as national spheres. Academic discourse is following their activity, often focusing on advocacy networks and on the role of transnational actors within the transformation of the world economy and world polity. In contrast to these research activities, the approach proposed here extends the scope of inquiry to include the role of transnational in norm-building and norm-implementation. The under scrutiny here do not confine themselves to the articulation of particular interests, the resolution of particular conflicts, or compliance with legal norms. It is presumed here that a variety of which are fundamentally concerned with the creation of norms have emerged. The predominance of the nation-state, one of the main characteristics of modern democratic thinking, has eroded to the point where the fundamental nexus of voice (democratic participation) and entitlement (legal and social rights and duties) has been weakened or even broken. We presume that this decentration has fundamentally changed the option of as one of the most important responses by citizens to crisis and change. This comes to the fore with the emergence and effectiveness of transnational norm-building networks. The article develops a research programme, the outcome of which will shed light on this new resource for the development of a democratised world polity. Dezentrale selbstorganisierte, grenzuberschreitende Aktivitaten gestalten zunehmend die globale Politik. Wahrend Staaten an Bedeutung eingebust haben, sind politische und okonomische Netzwerke zu Schlusselakteuren geworden und transformieren sowohl internationale Beziehungen als auch nationale Politiken. Der akademische Diskurs konzentriert sich bei der Verfolgung von deren Aktivitaten oftmals auf Advokaten-Netzwerke und die Rolle transnationaler Akteure bei der Umgestaltung von Weltokonomie und Weltpolitik. Die hier vorgestellte Forschungsinitiative erweitert demgegenuber den Untersuchungsrahmen auf die Rolle transnationaler Netzwerke bei der Normbildung und -durchsetzung. Die hier untersuchten Netzwerke erschopfen sich nicht in der Artikulation von Partikularinteressen, der Losung besonderer Konflikte oder dem Normgehorsam. Angenommen wird vielmehr, dass eine Vielzahl von Netzwerken entstanden ist, denen grundsatzlich an Normschaffung gelegen ist. Die Vorherrschaft des Nationalstaates, ein Charakteristikum modernen demokratischen Denkens, ist soweit erodiert, dass der grundlegende Nexus zwischen voice (demokratischer Beteiligung) und Berechtigung/Verpflichtung (hinsichtlich sozialer und rechtlicher Rechten und Pflichten) geschwacht oder gar gebrochen ist. Wir nehmen an, dass diese Art von Dezentrierung die voice-Option – als eine der wichtigsten Antworten von Burgern auf Krise und Wandel – von Grund auf verandert hat. Dies kommt im Entstehen und Wirksamwerden transnationaler Normbildungsnetzwerke zum Vorschein. Der Artikel entwickelt ein Forschungsprogramm, das im Ergebnis Licht auf diese neue Ressource fur die Entwicklung einer demokratisierten Weltordnung werfen wird.

The role of trans-national networks in technology transfer and innovation

Technology transfer and innovation is one of the main challenge of the European Communityto "drive innovation and competitiveness by connecting knowledge, technologies andpeople". In this field, the paper aims to present the results of technology transfer actions attrans-national level obtained by NETTI - Network in the Energy Field: Technology Transfer(TT) and Innovation, thanks also to effective cross cooperation with other TT networkshighlighting the importance of synergies and combining resources and initiatives. The lessonlearned shows the opportunities and the results that could be obtained by an efficientcollaboration between interregional and trans-national actions.

Social production of representations of ideas of civil society: The role of transnational networks of local and global actors

In this era of globalization, the social production of social representations of ideas of civil society is related to processes that involve the participation both of local and/or national actors as well as of transnational actors. In an effort to understand how these processes occur, in this article I analyze the practices of multilateral banks, non-governmental agencies, and governmental, intergovernmental and para-governmental agencies from the United States and several European countries. I also analyze the practices of some local and national actors from Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela.

The Emerging Global Gender Equality Regime from Neoliberal and Constructivist Perspectives in International Relations

A global gender equality regime has emerged, identifiable by its norms, principles,legal instruments and compliance mechanisms. I suggest that neoliberal theories ofinternational regimes provide insights into the identification of this regime and theconditions for its emergence. They acknowledge the role of transnational networks,international institutions and epistemic communities of experts in shaping statechoices. Global women's networks, together with multilateral and bilateraldevelopment organizations, have been instrumental in shaping these global normson gender equality by engaging in a learning process – framing issues,influencing negotiations by the information they provide and monitoring progress.But the neoliberal theories tell us nothing about the norms themselves, theircontestation in different contexts and the structures that support them and give themmeaning. A second theoretical framework in international relations, constructivism,opens the way to a crucial appreciation of gender as an analytical category,demonstrating how gender norms and identities are constructed, contested andreconstructed in historical, and socio-political contexts. It thus potentially allows usto examine how a "gender equality regime', as defined by its principles,norms and decision-making mechanisms, needs to be further deconstructed andanalyzed to reveal how global norms get interpreted, reinterpreted, filled in andcontested on a continuing basis within different and sometimes competing institutions.Otherwise, such norms are bound to remain superficial and may obfuscaterather than clarify.

The Rise of International Environmental Politics: A Review of Current Research

This review article identifies five research themes in the study of international environmental politics. Among them, the research on regime effectiveness and on transnational networks has the greatest potential for becoming a driving force in the search for new avenues in the analysis of international relations. Although at the moment less is known about regime consequences and the role of transnational networks in international environmental politics than about regime formation, the former two have recently produced research questions and strategies that seem to be promising. However, the study of regime effectiveness and transnational networks requires more sophisticated research strategies in order to realize its full potential. Although the concept of causal mechanisms used in this research strand seems to be an extremely innovative and promising approach, it needs to be developed in more detail and backed up by comparative designs.