Transnational Society Research Articles

A Hard-Boiled Hero in an Atomized World: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s El hombre de mi vida and Milenio Carvalho Lament Neoliberal Alienation

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho detective novels comprise a seminal series, spanning eighteen novels from 1972 to 2004, that consolidated the novela negra as a popular, denunciatory genre in Spain. While much has been written about the early entries in the series, the latter novels, namely El hombre de mi vida (2000), Milenio I: Rumbo a Kabul, and Milenio II: En las antípodas (2004), have not received similar attention. Critics like Colmeiro, Balibrea, and Nichols have accurately read these novels as a denunciation of the most evident negative consequences of globalization at the turn of the new millennium, principally gentrification, displacement, and the exploitation of both labor and natural resources. Here, I expand this analysis to consider another of the deleterious effects of free-market rationality: The increasing personal alienation that has come to characterize modern neoliberal societies, a phenomenon recently analyzed by political philosophers like Brown (2015) and May (2012), and psychologists such as Verhaeghe (2014). I argue that, as the Carvalho character evolves throughout the series and neoliberalism achieves cultural hegemony, the depiction of the solitary protagonist in the final three novels denounces the growing isolation of the individual in a transnational society. This is reflected in the trope of the voyage, Carvalho’s nostalgic melancholia, and the progressively alienated condition of the marginalized detective as his relationships with others, tenuous in the best circumstances, begin to fully disintegrate.

Transnational religious actors and international order – the case of the gülen movement

This paper seeks to illustrate how religion can affect international relations and international order. Given that religion has been neglected as an important factor in political science, and then in theories of international relations, this paper will try to provide a modest contribution to the study of religion in the theory of international relations by analyzing the influence of transnational religious actors on the existing international order. The transnational religious actor analyzed in this paper is the Gülen Movement – Hizmet Movement. Hizmet Movement is a transnational Islamic movement formed in the Republic of Turkey in the 1960s by the former Turkish Imam Muhammad Fethullah Gülen. Today, this Islamic movement has many institutions, organizations and members around the world. The Gülen Movement aims to create a transnational society - the Golden Generation of Ideal People (Altın Nesıl), and thus represents a challenge for the existing international order.

Introduction: Political constitutions in transnational society: introducing socio‐legal and interdisciplinary perspectives

Introduction: Political constitutions in transnational society: introducing socio‐legal and interdisciplinary perspectives

Ideological Topography in World Politics: A Guide to the End of the Unipolar-Homogeneous Moment

AbstractThe immediate post–Cold War era was defined by the material and ideological dominance of the United States. Thirty years on, challenges to both types of dominance proliferate. What explains the systemic change currently underway? The conventional wisdom of a shift to bipolarity or multipolarity ignores the possibility of changes within unipolarity. Recent instability is better explained by the decreased dominance of liberal-democratic ideology and the re-emergence of ideological competition. Building on Raymond Aron's analysis of homogeneous and heterogeneous international systems, we propose a typology exploring the intersections of systemic distributions of power and ideological topographies. Homogeneous topographies operate on a principle of collusion, reducing uncertainty while promoting restraint, transnational society, and gatekeeping against challenger ideologies. Heterogeneous topographies follow a crisscrossing logic, raising the stakes of relations, contributing to breakdowns in norms of nonintervention, enabling subversion by splitting loyalties, and encouraging repression and the fragmentation of transnational society. Applying this framework, we reappraise the 1990s as a unipolar-homogeneous moment. The emergence of heterogeneity in the mid-2000s, with the rise of authoritarianism and transnational illiberalism, put greater pressure on US unipolarity. This work has implications for debates about US foreign policy, the stability of unipolar systems, and the consequences of systemic change.

Revitalising the Role of Literature in the Contemporary EFL Secondary Classroom: A Small-scale Study

It can be asserted that nowadays a vast proportion of the world’s population needs to develop communicative competence in English to participate in transnational societies. Although there is still some reticence to use literature in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, our main claim is that literary resources may be a powerful tool for the development of intercultural communicative competence in English. In particular, the main purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which literary resources are used in EFL teaching and analyse which literary genres are more attractive and appropriate for teenagers. In this study we have observed the extent to which literature is currently used in the teaching of EFL in the stage of secondary education in the region of Aragón. For that, the method to follow has been based on the development of different surveys used to gather information about the popularity of literature in some Aragonese classrooms. In addition to this, the literary genres which are more appropriate for teenagers have been examined through the creation of a checklist, and these data have supported the design, creation and partial implementation of an innovative project in the secondary-education classroom. The results of this implementation have led us to demonstrate that the development of communicative competence in our younger generations can be enhanced through literary texts if the selection and methodology used in the classroom are adequate.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE'S INVOLVEMENT IN CAMPAIGNING THE ANTI-RACISM MOVEMENT

The issue of racism is still common, especially in the black race. Black people are often subjected to discriminatory treatment, such as violence to slurs. The death of George Floyd in 2020 adds to the dark history of racism, and this has further strengthened the campaign against the importance of anti-racism to black citizens through the slogan "Black Lives Matter". The spread of this slogan has made this campaign spread to transnational society, including the administrators and athletes in the English Premier League (EPL). This research focuses on discussing the role of the EPL in the anti-racism movement through the Black Lives Matter campaign, where the research question is: "how is the implementation of the involvement of the English Premier League in campaigning for the anti-racism movement through the "Black Lives Matter" Campaign in the 2019/2020 Season?". The purpose of this study is to explain the role of the EPL in the anti-racism movement through the “Black Lives Matter” campaign, as well as the implementation of its campaign. This study uses a literature study data collection technique, with secondary data sources from books or reports, and analyzed using descriptive qualitative methods. This research is based on the theory of the British School as well as the concept of Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs), both of which are used as analytical instruments. Based on the analysis, it is found that the role of EPL in supporting the “Black Lives Matter” campaign is very explicit. This can be seen in the support from the league management (CEO), to the coaches and players. The EPL campaigns in three forms, namely: changing the name on the uniform with the words “Black Lives Matter”, installing a slogan logo on the uniform, as well as kneeling on one leg while holding hands up before the match starts. Therefore, it can be concluded that the EPL's role in campaigning for the “Black Lives Matter” issue is manifested through real actions that refer directly to the slogan campaign.

Contemplative Freedom in the Anthropocene: Inspiration from Sloterdijk

Contemplative Freedom in the Anthropocene:Inspiration from Sloterdijk Jessica Ludescher Imanaka (bio) What new meaning of freedom can be found in the Anthropocene,1 and how can it be accessed in support of ethics and justice regarding environmental issues? It is clear that the current and future conditions of the Anthropocene will engender problems of ethics and justice of unprecedented nature and magnitude, requiring reconceptualizations of theories and praxes. As freedom has remained a core value and constituent concept in numerous theories of ethics and justice, at least in the West, it is worth considering the future of freedom in the Anthropocene. The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has proposed provocative possibilities for such reconceptualizations that prove fecund because his theories deal explicitly with ecological crises while drawing from diverse and opposed political perspectives. In a short book called Stress and Freedom, Sloterdijk reimagines the meaning of freedom, as interacting with stress in what I show to be a mutually transformative process. Freedom paradoxically retreats from stress so as to brave it with noble liberality. Such reconfigurations of freedom become more lucid once its interrelationship with stress is considered in connection with Sloterdijk's provocative environmental writings. This article sketches a vision for contemplative freedom based on the writings of Sloterdijk. I here explore his suggestive concept of freedom, as freedom from stress and "availability for the improbable" (Sloterdijk 2016b, 54), and exhibit its interconnection with his account of the demands placed upon us by the "Great Catastrophe" of ecological crises (Sloterdijk 2013, 44). I begin by articulating Sloterdijk's theory of society as a "stress integrated force field" in Stress and Freedom (Sloterdijk 2016, 6) and analyze this view in light of environmental stresses, which generate stressful freedom. Although Sloterdijk does not articulate the meaning of freedom explicitly in the context of environmental issues, I draw out the environmental implications. I then examine Sloterdijk's account of freedom in relation to stress and reveal the interactive dimensions of this relationship, arguing that his view of freedom transcends the left/right divide. I show how Sloterdijk draws from both leftist and conservative [End Page 297] conceptions of freedom but then moves beyond them with a Nietzschean twist. Sloterdijk's notion of freedom may be linked with his ideas of anthropotechnics, especially when stress and freedom are brought into dialectical interplay. I reveal the contemplative dimensions of his account of freedom, highlighting how freedom's dynamic tension with stress holds potential for fruitful reengagement with ecocrises. Integrating ideas from several of Sloterdijk's texts, I sketch a vision of contemplative freedom oriented toward a becoming-human anew in the Anthropocene. Proposing some reconfigurations of this vision, I conclude with Sloterdijk's hope for monogeistic co-immunity. Stressful Freedom in the Anthropocene In Stress and Freedom, Sloterdijk draws upon stress theory to propose that "the large-scale political bodies we call societies should be understood primarily as stress-integrated force fields" (2016b, 6). Societies find cohesion and "synchronization of consciousness" in response to stress-provoking stimulations, which are mainly propagated by the media (7). The media system produces agitating stimuli, which it continually updates and disseminates, generating topics of "concern" that bind the society symbolically (7–8). The book eventually focuses on a modern conception of freedom, which Sloterdijk attributes to Rousseau's view of freedom as the contemplative retreat from social persecution, an account that amounts to an individualistic removal from social reality and its stresses. Stress is defined as a kind of unfreedom, freedom as a form of nonstress. Sloterdijk's account of stress-induced unity appears to apply most easily to cultural similarity and identification, though he suggests it pertains to multicultural societies. It also could explain how subnational and transnational societies emerge, as groups bond over their shared sense of stress priorities and apprehension of what is stressful. Popular media vary intranationally as well as internationally. For example, political parties bond over perceived threats posed by the opposing tribe, and countries ally with each other in response to inimical forces. However, this account of the formation and maintenance of social cohesion remains incomplete by itself, since other elements, not least historical and legal ones, contribute to the formation and...

Особенности и специфика формирования готовности курсантов к взаимодействию в поликультурной среде региона

The article presents the peculiarities and specifics of the formation of cadets' readiness for interaction in multicultural environment of the region. Theoretical and methodological approaches to the mentioned problem are analyzed. The relevance of the work lies in the fact that in our changing world of the 21st century, cadets face a new problem of communication in multicultural environment. The aim of the work is to develop the skills of communication and cooperation with people of different nationalities, races and religions in an international and multicultural environment, strengthening mutual understanding and promoting peace and respect in society. The analysis of the topic carried out in this article allows us to define the learning environment of Russian cadets as a transnational society at the stage of educational development. The introduction of multicultural knowledge in the textbook is based on an analysis of the universality and uniqueness of society. It is a special part of interpersonal communication training.

You are Victim: The Depiction of Enemies in Japanese Super Hero Series

The depiction of Super-Villain in Japanese Super Hero series usually showing the western country as the main villain. The result of World War II primarily influences this. Nevertheless, recently there have been several Super Hero Series that depicted the minorities as the main villain. The purpose of this study is to present the issue of minorities in the Japanese Super Hero Series. Through the cultural study approach, this paper will discuss how minorities being represented by the antagonist character, Roimudde. This study had two aims (i) how does the Roimudde representing the minorities in Japanese society. (ii) how the characters Heart and Medic represent that minorities were victims of society. We found that the Roimudde was a different race from humans representing the minorities through content analysis of the Children television series Kamen Rider Drive. At the same time, Heart and Medic have painful memories that made them grudge toward humanity. It is also mean that this film was recognizing the minorities as the victim of prejudice by society. It is necessary to throw all prejudice to other people just because of physical or race differences to enter transnational society without prejudice.

European Outliers? Rethinking Europeanisation and Euroscepticism in Britain and Denmark

ABSTRACT In the light of Brexit and ongoing doubts about the future of a united Europe, have Britain and Denmark really been outliers to the collective European project, as suggested by their political positioning towards the EU? Despite the Euroscepticism expressed in referenda and public attitudes, we question whether these two countries are inherently less Europeanised, sociologically speaking, than other member states habitually seen as closer to the European project. Using data from the EUCROSS survey about the transnational practices and identifications of ordinary European citizens in five member states, we show that Britain and Denmark have been positioned close to Germany in terms of the degree and type of European cosmopolitanism and transnationalism found in these countries, and are more transnational societies than Spain and Italy. Moreover, in other ways, Britain and Denmark have been exemplary European societies, embodying the EU's cosmopolitan ‘normative power' agenda. We suggest that the marked divide between the ‘everyday Europeanisation’ of these societies and their political hostility to the EU is a paradox that lies at the heart of the democratic crisis of the continent, a schism that may now be directly corrosive to the longer term cosmopolitanism fostered by European integration.

Reflections on Afrika Bambaataa’s Universal Zulu Nation: horizons, hip hop, and hybridity

ABSTRACT Using Hans-Georg Gadamer’s famous discourse on horizons and modern postcolonial theories on black religious pluralism, this article examines Afrika Bambaataa, along with the organization he founded, the Universal Zulu Nation. The emphasis of the analysis is on his overcoming of material borderlands, interventions in cultural knowing, and forming of hybrid identities with reference to the vitality of religion. This methodology not only intimates pragmatic epistemologies that elucidate transmissions of knowledge and ethics across geographic landscapes but also fosters a more general framework of social analysis regarding shared human heritages. An evaluation of how Zulu horizons operate between local communities and global cultures demonstrates how interreligious dialogue and polyethnic belongings that extend across transnational spiritualties and societies signify ways of transgressing difference and sameness within ideological systems. After a discussion of cultural hermeneutics as a mode of interpreting the histories of ontology and Otherness to obtain a basis for understanding peripheral societies and faiths, the article then investigates how the Zulu Nation belongs to an Afrocentric pluralist tradition within those constellations of ideas and ideals, before the conclusion focuses on the way recent allegations of Bambaataa’s sexual assault affect his legacy of social consciousness for scholars of contemporary religion.

Rebuilding the Maritime Culture of the Islands of Macaronesia: The Mythical and Historical Perception of Island Societies

While traditional historiography does establish that history cannot bypass islands, these spaces have in fact been regarded as anecdotes amidst the great historical processes and it has hardly been reflected upon the origin of its maritime culture. This research paper addresses a supranational territory, Macaronesia, and questions the origin of its island identity in order to understand what these islanders' perception of their plural maritime culture has been and how this identity was formed through myths and stories. Methodologically, this research draws from a critique of transatlantic historiographic approaches while systematizing the main contributions of island historians. The study is underpinned by the analysis of accounts wherein chroniclers and historians allude to the origin of Macaronesic identity and culture. The islands are tackled on their own terms and the sociocultural perspective is emphasized with the aim of applying the fundamentals of nesology to historical knowledge. This research addresses the history, myth and historicality of the myth in order to understand the foundation of a contemporary aquapelagic and transnational society, whose early beginnings were marked by the complementarity between islands and the ability to transfer cultural traces between borders.

A dinâmica das fronteiras e a migração haitiana contemporânea

A antiga e intensa migração de haitianos pelo mundo ajudou a transformar o Haiti em uma sociedade transnacional, profundamente conectada com diversos destinos através das redes sociais entre migrantes e não migrantes. A partir de 2010, além da continuidade da migração para tradicionais destinos, os haitianos incorporaram países da América do Sul ao seu espaço migratório. Entretanto, as estratégias de mobilidade e atravessamento de fronteiras estão diretamente vinculadas às políticas migratórias adotadas pelos países de destino e de trânsito desses migrantes, contribuindo para a reconfiguração desses movimentos. Diante disso, o presente estudo objetivou analisar a relação entre a migração haitiana contemporânea e as políticas migratórias de alguns dos seus destinos. Para este fim, a metodologia utilizada baseou-se em revisão bibliográfica e documental publicada nos países que atualmente configuram-se como destinos dessa intensa mobilidade.

A kaleidoscope of societies. Variations of contents of international, transnational, global and world society

Although terms of society and its nexus to the globe are widely used, their socio-scientific meaning needs clarification. The aim of this article is to achieve that, while returning to the basic premise that sociology is the primary discipline that has to deal with concepts of society. Four typical terms of society and its nexus to the globe can be distinguished: international society, transnational society, global society and the term world society. The central question of the article refers to these concepts and the variation of these terms as well as their use; and it also refers to a discourse in conceptualisations of world society, in which case the similarities and differences between the approaches are worked out. The author concludes that in order to understand society and its nexus to the globe, there is an urgency to make available accurate meanings and to clarify universally recognised definitions and use of the terms. The suggestions bring us to the fundamental issue of the clarification of terms used within the social sciences.

A kaleidoscope of societies. Variations of contents of international, transnational, global and world society

Although terms of society and its nexus to the globe are widely used, their socio-scientific meaning needs clarification. The aim of this article is to achieve that, while returning to the basic premise that sociology is the primary discipline that has to deal with concepts of society. Four typical terms of society and its nexus to the globe can be distinguished: international society, transnational society, global society and the term world society. The central question of the article refers to these concepts and the variation of these terms as well as their use; and it also refers to a discourse in conceptualisations of world society, in which case the similarities and differences between the approaches are worked out. The author concludes that in order to understand society and its nexus to the globe, there is an urgency to make available accurate meanings and to clarify universally recognised definitions and use of the terms. The suggestions bring us to the fundamental issue of the clarification of terms used within the social sciences.

Transnational society as a mirror of international society: a reinterpretation of contemporary world order

AbstractAlthough there has been widespread attention to the apparent rise of a transnational society of cross-border non-state actors alongside the international society of states, transnational society and international society have traditionally been treated as distinctive domains with different institutions. This article, by contrast, aims to transform theorization of world order through its investigation of how actors in transnational society have developed institutions that mirror in notable respects some of the primary institutions of the international society of states such as through serving constitutive and regulative functions. In addition to delineating these institutions of transnational society, the article interrogates the interdependence of these institutions of transnational society and those of international society, as well as their differences and repercussions for world order. The analysis considers how, in conjunction with the contribution of institutions of international society to international order, institutions of transnational society contribute to transnational order. By exploring not only the tensions between but also the complementarities of transnational and interstate institutions, the article both provides a reinterpretation of contemporary world order and helps reveal the potential for its more harmonious operation.

Panta rhei? Space of flows in the era of anthropocene and outlooks into a multi-coloured future

The modern social, economic and communication flows change profoundly the development of spaces, their borders and boundaries, and affect the channels of flow between regions and the national, transnational and global society. The paper offers a reflection about the developments at the top of geographic and social scientific research as well as a reference to the agenda of spatial planning and politics. Therefore this article focuses on theoretical aspects of the “fluid society” but emphasizes also the need to learn from empirical insights and practical issues in the context of Polish-Swiss cooperation projects. It concludes however, that regional spaces under the auspices of modern flows are not unicoloured. That wants to say: they are not passive entities of modernisation, but keep their manifold, multicoloured characteristics – and these characteristics interact in the form of identities, cohesion and the natural backdrop with significant effects on those flows, enabling and steering modernisation strategies, and deciding about successes or failures of investments into traffic, tourism and economies. By that they shape the flows from and into peripheral regions.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Governments, Raison ddEtat, and European Integration

In the recent crises of the EU, member state governments found themselves in a quandary. On the one hand, international interdependence and deficient policy regimes call for more supranational integration. On the other hand, Eurosceptic publics and voters constrain what governments can commit to in the EU. In this paper, I argue that this is a quandary of their making. Governments designed European integration with a view to maximizing their own autonomy against both domestic and transnational society. Whereas they vested the EU with high supranational authority, they sought to retain sovereignty, capacity, and legitimacy. This imbalance has not only exacerbated the crises of the EU, but also made it difficult to find an adequate solution.

The Transformation of Kosovar Holidays between Socialism, War and Migration. A Biographical Approach

Abstract This paper studies the transformative character of tourism and travel for a small, but multi-facetted example: Kosovo is a post-socialist transformation society and a post-war country in the process of nation building, a developing country within Europe and a transnational migration society. With quantitative data being unreliable in such contexts, an exemplary, biographical study allows an analysis of cross-system transformations and continuities. Based on narrative interviews, the paper studies travel patterns and narratives of an Albanian woman (anonymized here as Zana Bajrami) from socialist rural Yugoslavia in the 1970s to migratory Europe in the 2000s. After a general introduction, the paper considers public and private tourism in Yugoslavia first, before focusing on the impact of migration on tourist behavior. In trying to contextualize an individual example, it also explores the potential of a biographical approach in tourism research.

Small world, big world: the cultural possibility of a Chinese transnational grassroots society

The radical modernist ideology (both Socialism and GDP-ism) that has overwhelmed China for the past sixty years has produced profound and distinctive problems. This article explores cultural resources at the grassroots level that are able to balance the influence of radical modernist ideology. Chinese new migrants (primarily ex-peasants from rural areas of South China who migrated to Western countries, particularly to the US in the past three decades) have revived local cultural and societal mechanisms in the construction of transnational self-rule communities. By applying an anthropological approach, this research shows that the new migrants’ practices express their understanding of modernity and what “a better life” is. Their rich experiences may inspire us to look into the local tradition of South China, which represents a possible resource that could evolve in the direction of helping to form a modern civil society in China.