Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development in 2012

Research programme director:
Prof. Valentina Mazzucato

Programme profile

The Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development (GTD) research programme brings together FASoS research that focuses on the Global South using a transnational perspective. The Global South refers to developing countries as well as recently emerging economic powers such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). While its geographic grounding is the Global South, GTD’s research approach centres on exploring North-South and South-South linkages using a transnational perspective that gives GTD its distinctive profile. A commonality is that research is strongly grounded in empirical, primary data collection work using mixed methods ranging from anthropological qualitative fieldwork to sociological quantitative surveys.

A transnational perspective characterises the research conducted within GTD. The fundamental aspect of this approach is the focus on linkages across nation state borders as the basic unit of analysis. This is in contrast to studying social phenomena within nation state borders, or what has been called ‘methodological nationalism’. Linkages can take the form of material flows of people, goods or money and immaterial flows such as ideas and norms.

A clear illustration is the study of migration where a transnational perspective was first theorised. Migration, in its essence, is a cross-border phenomenon. Yet until the early 1990s, the dominant approach to migration was to study migrants as embedded in one nation state, either the receiving country (giving rise to studies of integration, social cohesion and the like) or the origin country (focusing on the effects of migration for these countries and communities). In contrast, a transnational approach focuses on the linkages that migrants maintain with their home communities, families, friends, business partners or political allies and how such linkages affect culture, society, politics and economy in both the origin and receiving countries. The approach starts with the assumption that linkages across nation states exist in people’s lived experiences and then proceeds to investigate them: whether they exist, what influence they have in various geographical settings and what new opportunities, marginalisations and inequalities they may produce.

A transnational perspective, as applied in GTD, looks at the micro- and meso-scale with a focus on individuals, networks, communities and civil society organisations and how they enact, practice and give shape to linkages across nation states. A transnational approach can be applied to various types of actors such as transnational migrant networks, firms or consumers in a global production system and to non-governmental organisations or political activist groups that operate transnationally to obtain political objectives.

Transnational linkages and their effects on people’s lives are investigated in three research areas:

• Transnational migrant families and networks: This research aims to re-frame migration research that is usually conducted within a nation state framework. It focuses on the everyday lived experiences of migrants and the people they are tied to in their countries of origin as well as elsewhere, paying particular attention to transnational families and social networks. Research is based on empirical investigations and multi-sited research designs mainly focused on Africa and Europe.
• Transnational migrant labour in global production networks: Migrant labourers working in firms in the Global South are faced with precarious working conditions, increasing the vulnerability of their families back home. This theme investigates transnational networks comprised of workers, households and communities that extend beyond nation state borders and their interactions with employers, states and institutions to mitigate their precariousness. Research projects are multi-sited and focus on Southeast Asia.
• Civil society organisations and transnational activism: This research studies the way in which local civil society organisations make use of transnational platforms, networks and discourses to mobilise resources for their local activism. The research focuses on access to healthcare and medicine for populations in the Global South involving NGOs, state officials and activists in Rio de Janeiro, Washington, Cape Town and Geneva.