Transnational Embeddedness Research Articles

‘The West Is Trying Too Hard’: Gender and the Right-Wing Critique of Globalization

This paper examines how the term ‘gender’ has been re-signified by the right-wing actors in contemporary struggles around globalization. First, we offer a chronology of debates concerning global diffusion of gender norms, tracing the consolidation of various groups into the anti-gender movement. The next section discusses how gender and globalization intersect in discursive strategies of anti-gender actors. We show that they target international institutions and norms portraying them as a western cosmopolitan force, claiming to speak on behalf of local populations and obfuscating their transnational embeddedness. The aim is to moralize and blur the boundaries between the local and the global—a strategy we call chameleon tactics. The final part examines how chameleon tactics unfolded in the specific context of the 2019 ICPD25 Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, and how an anti-globalist frame was used to blur the global identity of anti-gender organizations present there.

The transnational dimension of the Pakistani ethnic economy in Barcelona

ABSTRACT The city of Barcelona has become a nodal point of the transnational social space of the Pakistani diaspora. Despite being quite invisible, Pakistanis stand out for their entrepreneurial activities, especially in the food and telecommunication sectors. This paper aims to shed light on the transnational dimension of Pakistani ethnic businesses of Barcelona through the lens of ‘transnational mixed embeddedness’ and a multi-level approach that combines analytical levels (macro, meso and micro) and territorial levels (local/national and transnational). This is within the theoretical debate around globalization from below, immigrant entrepreneurship and transnational entrepreneurship, and by using a mixed-methods design. The results show how migrant entrepreneurs can be placed in a ‘continuum of transnational embeddedness’, depending on the interrelation of agency and micro-sociological processes entailing in-group differences with meso-market and macro-structural factors from a dynamic point of view.

Digitized diaspora governance during the COVID-19 pandemic: China's diaspora mobilization and Chinese migrant responses in Italy.

We explore how the Chinese diaspora state during the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 managed to transform a severe health crisis into a geo‐political opportunity for transnational nation‐building through diaspora governance based on extensive use of social media technologies. By adopting a multi‐scalar perspective, we analyse the intertwined nature of top‐down and bottom‐up processes of the Chinese Party‐state's diaspora mobilization. Based on discourse and ethnographic analysis, we argue that China's diaspora governance exposed a new and strong capacity for extra‐territorial governance. We explore how discursive hegemony, social control and diaspora mobilization were achieved by widely employing the Chinese social media application, WeChat. We also contend that this was facilitated by the Italian government's and media's pro‐China attitudes to emphasize the importance of considering transnational embeddedness when studying the implementation and impact of interactive online technology for diaspora governance in an illiberal political context.

Transnational and Local Co-ethnic Social Ties as Coping Mechanisms Against Perceived Discrimination - A Study on the Life Satisfaction of Turkish and Moroccan Minorities in the Netherlands.

Perceived ethnic discrimination is known to decrease minorities’ life satisfaction. This research investigates the extent to which minorities’ local and transnational co-ethnic social ties mitigate the negative effects of perceived discrimination on life satisfaction. Put differently, focusing on the experiences of Turkish and Moroccan minorities, we discuss whether co-ethnic social ties, both locally and transnationally embedded, can be considered as coping mechanisms against perceived discrimination. Furthermore, we investigate whether these mechanisms work differently for first- and second-generation minorities. Using Netherlands Longitudinal Life-course Study, we reveal that perceived discrimination is positively associated with local co-ethnic social ties in Netherlands which consequently predicts higher life satisfaction for both generations. Surprisingly, we also show that only among the second generation perceived discrimination is associated with stronger transnational co-ethnic social ties, but not the first generation. Having these transnational ties however are beneficial for life satisfaction of both generations. Consequently, we highlight the importance of recognizing transnational embeddedness of minorities and studying the effects transnational co-ethnic social ties on subjective well-being outcomes especially for second-generation minorities.

Interweaving the Fabric of Urban Infrastructure: Senegalese City‐making in Rio de Janeiro

AbstractThis article reveals how newcomers weave their own threads into the fabric of urban infrastructure. Entangling their own with other urban assemblages, newcomers generate multi‐layered dynamics situationally in order to render possible the lives to which they aspire. They forge openings where there seemed none before and keep negative potentialities in check. To offer an ethnography of how the Senegalese presence in Rio de Janeiro has grown dynamically between 2014 and 2019, I draw analytical strength from the double meaning of agencement: the action of interweaving varied socio‐material components—agencer—so that they work together well, and the resulting assemblage of social and material components. Two case studies act as a starting point: how Senegalese came to inhabit an urban architectural landmark and how they regularize their residence status. Their transformative power of city‐making is generated both through the mutual intertwining of a dahira, a religious group of Senegalese migrants, and a diasporic Senegalese association and through the ways in which the Senegalese interweave themselves and their institutionalized collective forms with ever more socio‐material components of the urban space. Beyond the better‐known transnational embeddedness of the Senegalese, their complex infrastructuring practices upon arrival become constitutive of new urban realities, moulding the city fabric of which they are becoming part.

Transnational Embeddedness of Nigerian Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Ghana, West Africa

Transnationalism has provided an important optic for understanding immigrant entrepreneurship in the past three decades. However, the existing discourse often neglects Africa as a context for the articulation of immigrant entrepreneurship. Leaning on the constructivist epistemology with empirical base anchored in in-depth interviews and observational data, I explore the transnational contours and practices of Nigerian immigrants in Ghana and their entrepreneurial articulation in the country. First, I show how these immigrant entrepreneurs are embedded in multiple layers of transnationalism, namely one-way, two-way, and tripartite transnationalism. Secondly, I demonstrate the ways these entrepreneurial activities are embedded in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) through the transnational economic opportunity structures it has created and are being exploited by the immigrants and the range of institutions, practices, and services that have emerged because of the existence of ECOWAS itself. A third dimension of transnationalism in the operation of Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurship in Ghana relates to labor recruitment through the traditional apprenticeship system, which, grounded in intersubjective field, crisscross the home and host communities. From these findings, I conclude by positioning the immigrants and their entrepreneurial processes as transnationally embedded.

Defining and Measuring Transnational Social Structures

Transnational social fields and transnational social spaces are often used interchangeably to describe and analyze emergent structures of cross-border formations. In this article, we suggest measuring two key aspects of these social structures: embeddedness and span of migrants’ personal networks. While clustered graphs allow assessing transnational embeddedness, the standardized diversity index can be used to show variation in the number of countries reported in personal networks. The measures will be exemplified with the data collected in Barcelona from three groups (Chinese, Sikh, and Filipino, N = 25 in each group, 30 alters by ego).

Contested norms in new-adopter states: International determinants of LGBT rights legislation

This article is concerned with the question of why lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) rights legislation is introduced at higher levels in some cases and less so in others. To address this puzzle, the article analyzes changes in LGBT rights legislation across European Union (EU) member states between 1970 and 2009. It focuses on the diffusion of five different categories of such legislation (anti-discrimination, criminal law, partnership, parenting rights, and equal sexual offenses provisions) to new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe, compared with diffusion patterns in older EU member states. I argue that new-adopter states are more dependent on international resources for making new issues visible and are more inclined to see policy adoption as a means to gain external legitimacy and improve reputation. The analysis reveals that the transnational embeddedness of a state’s LGBT advocacy organizations is a powerful statistical explanation for successful policy diffusion to new EU member states, alongside international channels that lead to LGBT visibility among society and state authorities. In addition to lending cross-national, empirical reinforcement to some of the theoretical expectations regarding the international sources of diffusion, the results suggest variability in the determinants of LGBT policy adoption between the 15 old and 12 new EU states. Domestic factors, particularly economic modernization, are more relevant for policy adoption in the older member states, whereas the newer member states display greater dependence on transnational actors and are more influenced by international channels.

Transnational Entrepreneurship amongst Vietnamese Businesses in London

This paper draws on research with Vietnamese businesses in London which seeks to challenge some of the traditional views of transnational entrepreneurship. These have focused primarily on entrepreneurs embedded in both home and host countries and the need for regular travel between the two to manage the business. In contrast, this study suggests that transnational entrepreneurship today is more fluid than previous studies have suggested and is often characterised by multi-polar (rather than bipolar) links. Travel is also less relevant in the current age of ‘super-connectivity’. The research explores how Vietnamese entrepreneurs in London draw on various forms of transnational capital to further the development of their business, and develops a framework to measure the degree and extent of the transnational embeddedness and dependency of the business. The results suggest that transnational entrepreneurship amongst ethnic minority entrepreneurs today is better viewed as a continuum rather than a set of discrete business types.

The Stories (Un)told in Emerging Fields: Legitimation Dynamics around Shale Gas Exploitation (WITHDRAWN)

This article will conceptualize the political struggles of the emerging and contested field around the issue of shale gas exploitation in Europe as being embedded in a web of strategic action fields on national and transnational levels. In line with this year’s overall AOM theme “The Power of Words” it adopts a discursive perspective and seeks to embed discursive legitimation strategies into their wider field dynamics. Preliminary findings suggest that the transnational embeddedness of actors and arguments influence legitimation strategies and field structure. This refines our understanding of legitimation dynamics as the attribution of threat at the local level in one field may serve the seizing of an opportunity on the global level in another field. In addition, actors respond to global pressures but may mobilize discursive power by adapting their discourses to local contexts. Furthermore, proponents are found to generally adopt an issue containment strategy, while opponents adopt an issue expansion strategy.

Between Transnational Embeddedness and Relative Isolation: The Moderate Rise of Memory Studies in Hungary

Between Transnational Embeddedness and Relative Isolation: The Moderate Rise of Memory Studies in Hungary

Transnational Embeddedness: Transnational Activities and Networks among First- and Second-Generation Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands

During the past decade or more, transnationalism has become a central concept in migration literature. However, research on the question of whether the second generation is transnationally involved remains limited, and is mainly focused on the cultural and not on the economic domain of transnationalism. In this article I explore the transnational activities of first- and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. Analysis shows that embeddedness in transnational networks remains important for the second generation, yet the extent of it is less compared to the first generation. This study points to the fact that not every entrepreneur is or can be transnationally active; ‘transnational capital’, which not everyone automatically possesses, is needed to be able to do business with the country of origin.

Social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective.

The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness. Human agency is characterized by a number of core features that operate through phenomenal and functional consciousness. These include the temporal extension of agency through intentionality and forethought, self-regulation by self-reactive influence, and self-reflectiveness about one's capabilities, quality of functioning, and the meaning and purpose of one's life pursuits. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. Growing transnational embeddedness and interdependence are placing a premium on collective efficacy to exercise control over personal destinies and national life.