Transnational Region Research Articles

Intra-regional social systems: cases of the Maritime Silk Road around the South China Sea Rim

The South China Sea Rim is a core area of the Maritime Silk Road, ranging from South and Southwest China to Southeast Asia. It has developed a cultural landscape in which all parties are interdependent through very complex processes of ethnic communication and social interaction. In this temporal-spatial process, the cultural exchanges occurring in this area are not only shaping the cultural ecologies of those involved but also integrating their societies. The networked inter/inter-regional social systems lay a methodological foundation on which the South China Sea Rim is dealt with as a whole. These social systems can be defined as a social unit, transcending the lower levels of family, community, ethnic group, nation and transnational region and making up a significant component of the global society. This concept presents a new research pathway to the interpretation of “community of a shared future for mankind” and the “Belt and Road Initiative”.

Towards a Political Geography of Territorial Cooperation

This article proposes to explore territorial cooperation using a political geographical approach as part of the broader field of “geography of peace.” In line with ongoing paradigm shifts in the branch of political geography concerned with territorial reconfigurations, it examines the scope of territorial cooperation via two emblematic figures: transnational regions, in the form of European macro-regions, and city networks, as exemplified by town twinning. Lastly, it opens new avenues of research on the articulation between the weak and discreet ties of territorial cooperation and the strong ties characteristic of the territorial divisions and administrative structures inherited from political modernity.

What does regional studies study? From sub-national to supra-national regional spaces or Grossraum of sovereign governance

ABSTRACTWhat does regional studies study? From sub-national to supra-national regional spaces or Grossraum of sovereign governance. Territory, Politics, Governance. This article makes a case for expanding the scope of current versions of “regional studies” to include greater emphasis upon transnational regions as of equal if not greater importance compared with an exclusive focus upon sub-national regions. The latter more restrictive approach is typically predicated on the continued centrality of state borders against which the dominant notion of regions as subnational entities is constituted and reiterated. Drawing upon a case study of the African Union our study provides a framework, a critically revised Grossraum theory, for addressing the emergence of a new pluralistic and multipolar world order characterised by supra-national regions and regional organizations. Traditional Schmittian notions of Grossraum are shown to be in need of substantial revision before they are able to adequately accommodate and explain the empirical details of our case study.

Place branding in the Øresund region: From a transnational region to a bi-national city-region

The Oresund Region that connects Copenhagen metropolitan area in Denmark and Southern Sweden is an interesting example of a European cross-border collaboration. In this article, the contemporary development of the region and the place branding process is described. The aim is to increase understanding of how a complex and bi-national place brand is developed in a process of continuous change due to societal and political contexts. The article is inspired by a theoretical framework for place branding based on ideas from corporate branding (Kavaratzis, 2004) and organizational identity (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013), and emphasizes the role of media. The place branding process is defined in three contemporary phases: the public opinion phase, the invoking of a transnational brand phase, and the Europe of City-Regions phase. The analysis leads to two main conclusions: (1) the development of the current place brand at hand mirrors a possible change in geo-spatial focus in: from a transnational approach toward a bi-national city-based approach and (2) the case study suggests that a strategic communication logic, focusing residents rather than the wills of elites, is more relevant to such cases than a marketing logic.

The production of borders in nineteenth-century Europe: between institutional boundaries and transnational practices of space

The article proposes a synthesis of the major historical works on nineteenth-century European borders. Founded on an original methodological approach, the article advances a rethinking of the concept of ‘territoriality’ traditionally attributed to the rise of modern nation-states. The innovative method adopted is based on combining the focus on spatiality in recent historiography – especially in global history – with the categories and the ethnographic method developed within the border-studies field. The analysis is conducted in two directions. The first focuses on ‘borders’, specifically on some border-creation processes developing throughout the European continent. The second is more centred on European ‘borderlands’, conceived as trans-state and trans-national regions, mainly linked to the space's well-established social practices, familial and economic networks and religious experience. On the one hand, the article highlights how nineteenth-century borders were not simply the product of an institutional decision performed by emerging nation-states, but also the result of an interactive dialectic between state institutions and social actors inhabiting the borderlands. On the other, it shows how the borderlands as cross-border territorial entities continued to exist alongside the new territorial state limits, helping shape a more complex European spatiality than traditionally stated.

Multiculturalism in a Transnational Regional Community: EU Subsides and Cultural Heritage in Southeast Polad

The Bieszczady region of southeast Poland contains many traces of former multiethnic communities, and the transnational forces that destroyed them. With increasing frequency, the European Union logo marks EU involvement in cultural heritage projects throughout the region. In this article, I explore the interconnections among ethnicity, culture, and politics revealed in the ways Bieszczady residents make use of EU subsidies designated for the promotion of regional cultures. I argue that local agents cater to a vision of multiculturalism that bolsters EU values of cross‑border cooperation and tolerance for diversity, but they do so in pursuit of regional goals. Ethnographic examples show they want to increase regional pride and promote development of the regional tourist sector so that residents will feel less compelled to emigrate in search of employment. Although “transnational regional community” sounds like an oxymoron, it is an apt characterization of the Bieszczady region (and by extension other borderlands of the EU) because the transnational institution of the European Union provides the context in which particular kinds of regional identities become salient, albeit in multiple and fragmented ways.

‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’: the moral and political scales of migration in the central Mediterranean

This article offers recent dynamics of unauthorized migration and interception in the central Mediterranean as an example of historical anthropology of transnational region formation. It exemplifies how we can rescale classical themes in Mediterraneanist anthropology – hospitality, in this case – to illuminate transnational processes. I argue that anthropologists actually share with human rights advocates and European officials these ways of thinking about the scales of the moral and the political dimensions of migration, and I offer an alternative understanding of the scales of action, responsibility, and sovereignty as well as a clue about how regions come to life.

Wind, Water, and Risk: Shaping a Transnational History of the Western North Pacific

AbstractThe peoples who inhabit the states that lie in the direct paths of typhoons in the Western North Pacific share a common history of repeated dislocation, destruction, and death that delimits a zone of comparative enquiry and historiographical interest. The track left by typhoons across ocean and land perfectly outline the dimensions of a more transnational historical region encompassing the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the island states of Micronesia. The peoples of these lands are bound together by a common experience of risk. Wind and water together offer a radical alternative historiography to state-centred master narratives that are revealed by pursuing issues and questions that transcend the spatial and temporal boundaries of any one state or region.

Assessing forest change in a priority West African mangrove ecosystem: 1986–2010

This study examines the areal extent and status of mangrove forests in a West African region prioritized in contemporary conservation, climate change, and livelihood initiatives. The focus is the transnational region of the western coastal section of The Gambia and Senegal located between the Gambia and Casamance Rivers. Remote sensing applied to Landsat images of the interfluvial region in 1986 and 2010 indicates a 35% decline in overall mangrove coverage for the study area with sub-regions of pronounced loss. There was a 12% decline along the south bank of the lower Gambia River and a 43% decrease in coverage between the Gambian border and the Casamance River. Mangrove loss reached 92% in the northern section of Casamance south of the international border between Senegal and The Gambia. Fieldwork suggests that the mangrove decline over the study period is in part driven by the growing firewood demand of urban centers. The remote-sensing analysis, complemented by fieldwork in the region, attributes the negative trends to the Gambian demand for firewood, political instability in Casamance, and a porous international border that facilitates illegal cutting and smuggling.

Artist Mobility and the Baltic Cities: Revealing a Transnational Art World

Mobility is an important part of the everyday life and practice of artists. Many artists take part in short-term mobility in order to gain inspiration, form partnerships and contacts, and create networks and/or collaborations. Some of these pathways created through mobilities are well-established while other transnational connections have only recently been formed as artists connect to new, emerging art centres. With each new connection usually linking up yet another city, and with every artist presenting a different set of connections and trajectories, the artistic ‘transnation’ (Yeoh and Willis 2004, 1) is constantly developing. This article describes how this type of short-term, multi-directional mobility not only creates connections, forms collaborations, and helps to establish transnational communities, but is also vital in helping liminal cities to become part of the so-called global art world. More importantly, these artists’ base remains in the Baltic cities - Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn - as they are moving only temporarily. This mobile population, in turn, enables the Baltic cities to become a hub of connections or ‘relational spaces’. This article argues that such forging of ‘routes’ via mobility rather than planting permanent ‘roots’ (Clifford 1997, 1) in migration has helped the network of Baltic cities to form a transnational region and become part of the global art world.

The social sciences as an emerging global field

Exploring the ‘globalization’ of the social sciences, this article first presents an historical interpretation of how transnational exchange in the social sciences has evolved. Earlier forms of international circulation are distinct from the more global arrangements that have emerged since the late twentieth century. Considering this globalizing field in more detail, it is argued that its predominant characteristic is a core–periphery structure, with a duopolistic Euro-American core, multiple semi-peripheries and a wide range of peripheries. Focusing on the global level, much of the existing research, however, has neglected the emergence of transnational regional structures. The formation of a transnational European field of social science is taken as an example of this process of transnational regionalization. The social sciences worldwide can thus be seen as a four-level structure. In addition to the local and national level, transnational regional as well as global structures have gained increasing importance and a better understanding of ‘globalization’ requires more precise studies of both levels, in their own right as well as in their evolving interconnectedness.

Measures for enhancing crossborder business – Results of an international empirical study

Especially in the transnational region Austria – Slovenia where differences in culture and language are predominant companies have to adapt their behaviour according to the cultural context. Understanding how to adapt to different business contexts is essential for success. Up to now there are no empirically consolidated findings on factors which positively or negatively affect crossborder business in this region. This paper tries to give insights and seeks to provide a systematic overview of the current situation of businesses in the region of Slovenia–Carinthia and which factors influence cross-border business most.

Developing cross-border regional innovation systems with clean technology entrepreneurship: the case of Øresund

Development of regional innovation system (RIS) and its role in regional development is a debated research topic. Most of the theoretical and empirical works are traditionally focused on RIS situated within a national context and applies institutional theory. Recently the application of RIS concept was debated in relation to cross-border settings. Extending this line of research, we aim to study the role of entrepreneurship in one particular industry – cleantech – in the development of a cross-border RIS using the example of Øresund, Swedish-Danish transnational region. Eighteen interviews with regional stakeholders related to academia, business and administration were conducted. Our findings reveal that in order for innovations in cleantech to be realised, the efforts of entrepreneurs are necessary to promote knowledge spillover from research institutes and ‘locked’ systems into business environments. Further, encouraging research-based innovations related to social sciences significantly extends the possibility of building robust RIS.

A ciência social europeia como campo transnacional de pesquisa

Os debates sobre a internacionalização das ciências sociais têm focalizado a globalização. Este artigo, no entanto, analisa o campo da ciência social europeia como um caso de regionalização transnacional. O crescimento do financiamento europeu provocou cada vez mais colaboração entre fronteiras nacionais, e nestas estruturas regionais transnacionais emergentes três padrões se destacam. O primeiro diz respeito à posição predominante de países maiores, em particular a Grã-Bretanha. O segundo concerne à variação de uma para outra disciplina: certas disciplinas de ciências sociais apresentam um nível muito mais alto de orientação internacional do que outras. Um terceiro padrão diz respeito à implicação da colaboração europeia no contexto global. A colaboração europeia aumentou, mas a consequência disso, de maneira geral, parece paradoxal: enquanto periódicos e associações europeus têm uma posição periférica, se comparados com aqueles baseados nos EUA, entre os cientistas sociais mais citados, os europeus superam os norte-americanos.

The Asian Mediterranean: port cities and trading networks in China, Japan and Southeast Asia, 13th-21st century

Contents: Foreword Introduction: The Mediterraneans of Europe and Asia Part I: Two Models of Expansion Without Borders: The European Mediterraneans 1. The Mediterraneans and Global Expansion 2. Long Distance Trade and Urban Sovereignty: The Competitive Model of the Mediterranean at the Time of the Repubbliche Marinare 3. The Hanseatic League: A Model of Cooperation on the Baltic Sea Part II: Early Outlines of an Asian Mediterranean: The Predominance of Tributary Trade 4. Asian Trading Kingdoms and Independent Urban Entities 5. The Organisation of Trade in Asia: The Weight of Government Monopolies 6. Tributary Trade and Unofficial Trade 7. Japan's Place in Inter-Asian Trade: Resisting Chinese Hegemony 8. The Asian Maritime System Part III: The Overlapping of Western and Asian Trading Networks 9. European Expansion or Asian Force of Attraction? 10. Forced Openings of Treaty Ports 11. The Cosmopolitanism of Asian Trade Networks Part IV: The Arena of Re-globalisation: The Second Birth of the Asian Mediterranean 12. Chinese Coastal Cities Confronting the Challenge of Globalisation 13. The East Asian Manufacturing Belt 14. Hong Kong versus Shanghai: Rivalry between Middlemen 15. Competition between Logistic Hubs in Asia 16. Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Peking: Where Will China's International Financial Centre be Located? Part V: The Asian Mediterranean and the Challenges to State Sovereignty 17. Trans-national Regions and the East Asian Economic Corridor: An Asian Mediterranean 18. The Asian Mediterranean and the Reshaping of China's Economic Space 19. Local Protectionism and Trade Wars: Market Fragmentation in China 20. China's Power Base Shifts Back Towards the Sea Conclusion Bibliography Index

The Rhine: backbone of Dutch-German economic interdependence 1919–1933

Abstract For a long time, it has been said that Rhine transport plays an important role in Dutch-German economic bonds. Nevertheless, these transport flows have never been the subject of statistical research. This essay aims to fill this gap for the period 1919–1933. To do so, it charts Dutch, German, Belgian and French freight traffic, both by Rhine barge and by train. This essay finds that Germany’s economic structure and international economic ties find a strong expression in the transport sector, with Germany’s economic heartland clearly being the Ruhr area. In fact, the Ruhr area can be identified as the production centre of a transnational economic region formed by the areas that encompass the Rhine river system. Although transport to and from Belgium and France was also concentrated on the (extended) Ruhr area, for both Germany as a whole and the Ruhr area in particular it was transport to and from the Netherlands – where the port of Rotterdam acted as the main distribution centre for this transnational Rhine economy – that was by a large margin the most important. Of all this transport, the vast majority was via Rhine shipping, truly making the Rhine the backbone of Dutch-German economic relations.

Transnational Regionalization and the Rescaling of the Chinese State

Transnational regionalization has become a popular development policy among East Asian countries since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Expanding upon Brenner's theory of state rescaling, this paper focuses on China's transnational regionalization projects and how the Chinese state rescales to implement these projects. Specifically, this paper has two objectives. First, by comparing two projects of transnational regionalization in which Yunnan participates—the Greater Mekong Subregion program and the Bangladesh—China—India—Myanmar forum—the paper critically probes the actual mechanisms (upward collaboration, downward implementation, and outward corporatism) deployed by the Chinese state to facilitate cross-border initiatives. This emphasis on the actual mechanisms thus theorizes back to Brenner's work, showing that regulatory restructuring entails complex power relations of competition and collaboration among various forces. Second, this paper examines how the Chinese state handles the territorial geopolitical relations which have emerged during the process of transnational regionalization. I seek to broaden the theoretical framework of state rescaling beyond the narrow confines of domestic city-regions to international political economy.

“Connecting Cultures“: The Mekong River at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 2007

Each summer, the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, mounts a huge, ten-day-long festival on the National Mall, showcasing the folk arts of selected US states, communities, occupational groups, foreign countries, and/or transnational regions. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival has run every year since 1967, organized as “an annual display of living cultural heritage” (Kurin 1997:111) that typically features musicians, dancers, ritual specialists, craftspeople, storytellers, food preparers, specialized workers, learning opportunities, and discussion sessions. The emphasis is very much on “grassroots” culture, and on “foreground[ing] the voices of tradition bearers as they demonstrate, discuss, and present their cultures” (ibid.: 113). The festival is simultaneously an opportunity for the chosen locales and communities to raise their profile on an international stage, and for hundreds of thousands of Americans and overseas tourists to learn about places and cultures they might never otherwise encounter. Entrance to all events is free of charge, and annual attendance averages over one million.

Conceiving transit space in Singapore/Johor: a research agenda for the Strait Transnational Urban Region (STUR)

Between Singapore and Johor Bahru (JB) about 30,000–50,000 people cross the Johor Strait during weekdays to enjoy better wages in Singapore; vice versa during the weekends Singaporeans enjoy the high purchasing value of the Singaporean dollar over Malaysian goods and entertainment. These cross-border dynamics affect many strata of the local social geography and, therefore, the economic dynamics of this region. Johor–Singapore is indeed a rapidly emerging transnational urban region in Southeast Asia. Recent plans are being implemented in Johor to move up the value chain from the industrial to the knowledge sector. Iskandar Malaysia is a vision which aims to reinvent JB as a centre for leisure, high-tech production and the knowledge industry. But to what extent can urban planning contribute to achieving at least part of such targets is the focus of this article, set in the frame of a wider transnational urban region? With the intensification of planned gated communities, extensive land privatization and increasing infrastructure investment to support a car-based urban development, the risk for JB is to move away from its original, noble purposes. To unfold the transnational urban issues of this region, we propose investigating its transit space. In a comparative manner, in this article we show how problems such as perceived lack of safety, ineffective public transport, splintered urban developments, scarce environmental sustainability and extreme privatization of land and services are all aspects which can be better managed by planning a good transit space. Last but not the least, improving Malaysian transit space will facilitate intercultural dialogue among the different, Malaysian ethnic groups in the spirit of the recent government's motto of ‘1Malaysia’.

Regions and regionalism

It is notoriously diffi cult to defi ne the region. It is a territorial space, certainly, so we can exclude virtual spaces from our consideration, but it can take a number of territorial confi gurations. There is a conventional but still useful distinction between substate regionalism, studied traditionally by geographers, planners, sociologists, political scientists and historians, and supra-state regions, studied by other geographers and in international relations and strategic studies. Economists may make use of both. A third conception is the transnational region, which cuts across the boundaries of states, taking in some but not all of the territory or more than one political community. All these meanings, however, are relative to the nation-state, being above, below, or across it but not questioning its standing as the authoritative defi ner of territorial boundaries. Most of them also unproblematically use the term “nation-state” to defi ne both a sovereign polity and one in which state and nation coincide, although in plurinational polities these are quite diff erent meanings.