Oktober 31, 2017, 11:26 am, CHRISTINE BARWICK, Allgemein.
Most studies on second-generation transnationalism focus on transnational practices that connect the country of residence to the ancestral home. The second generation, however, is likely to develop other forms of mobility and different destination countries. Particularly in Europe, where citizens have a right to free movement, connecting research on migrant transnationalism to that on intra-European mobility and the emergence of collective identities allows us more fully to capture second-generation transnationalism and alternative forms of mobility, including their determinants and consequences. By way of a literature review and a research agenda, I point out the merits of connecting the two research traditions by focusing on the link between transnational ways of being and belonging, national and local contexts that act as push and pull factors for transnationalism and mobilities, and the potential for methodological innovation.
Oktober 31, 2017, 11:25 am, RORY HORNER, KHALID NADVI, Allgemein.
A growing body of research points to the ‘Rise of the South’ and the growth of South–South trade. In this article, we consider the implications of the shifting dynamics of global trade and the greater prominence of Southern actors for the conceptualization of global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs). We use trade data analysis to explore the changing geography of global trade and to highlight the emergence of more polycentric trade. We argue that our understanding of GVCs and GPNs, in a context where Southern actors and Southern end markets have more prominent roles, requires greater attention to the existence of multiple value chains (VCs) and production networks (PNs) serving different end markets – including domestic, regional and global. Consequently, there is a need to refine our understanding of both governance dynamics – lead firm strategies and standards requirements – and upgrading prospects through recognizing this shifting trade geography. We conclude by raising several new research questions regarding the conceptualization of VCs and PNs in a world where Southern actors and Southern markets are increasingly important.
Oktober 31, 2017, 11:25 am, DAN MERCEA, Allgemein.
In this article, I consider the question of whether transnational activism supporting national protest attains a cohesive collective identity on social media while remaining localized organizationally. I examine a corpus of social media data collected during two months of rolling protests in 2013 against the largest proposed open-cast gold mine at Roşia Montană, Romania, which echoed among Romanian expatriates. A network text analysis of the data supplemented with interview findings revealed concerns with protest logistics as common across the transnational networks of protest localities on both Facebook and Twitter, a finding that testified to the coordinated character of the protests. On the other hand, collective identity emerged as the fruit of attempts to surmount localized protest experiences of geographically disparate but civically-minded social media users.
Oktober 31, 2017, 11:25 am, MEINDERT FENNEMA, EELKE M. HEEMSKERK, Allgemein.
In this article, we study the emergence of computer aided network analysis as an example of ‘Mertonian’ multiple discovery. Computer assisted quantitative network analysis emerged around 1970 and small groups of researchers in different universities, who were independent of each other and looking for the right concepts and computer programs to implement graph theory in social analysis, first applied it to corporate interlock networks. We show how mathematical graph theory provided a toolbox for systematic network analysis and that simultaneously in the Netherlands and the United States this toolbox found an application in the study of corporate power. A historical narrative covers the three main centres in which large-scale corporate network analysis emerged – Amsterdam, California and Stony Brook. For each centre, we provide a sketch of the people involved, the tools they used, and the motivations that brought them to this topic. Our analysis makes clear that one cannot understand the emergence of computer aided network analysis without considering the personal and often political motivations of those who engaged in the first board interlock studies. Insurgent students of political science and sociology pushed for a research agenda on corporate power and found support from scholars who were keen to develop innovative network analysis methods. Hence, corporate network analysis became a legitimate field of research.
Oktober 31, 2017, 11:25 am, MONIKA SWASTI WINARNITA, Allgemein.
New forms of transnational families are being created by the feminization of migration, particularly of mobile Southeast Asian female workers who take on the financial responsibility of supporting their nieces and nephews who remain in the home country. This understudied kin relationship provides important insights into the complexities of transnational belonging among childless women. Fieldwork conducted in 2015 with Indonesian professional migrant women in Melbourne, Australia, reveals a translocalized Javanese cultural practice of fostering nieces and nephews. Using a framework that extends the anthropology of belonging into a gendered transnational context, in this article I argue that children who are absent, whether living in another country or never born, are yet present in women’s narratives and are key to a larger migrant project of recreating oneself as an ambiguously valued subject.
Oktober 30, 2017, 11:53 am, Hannah Postel, Allgemein.
China’s growing presence in Africa is not news: the expansion of bilateral trade and investment ties has garnered intense media and political focus over the past decade. However, less is known about the people accompanying these increasingly intensive flows of goods and capital. This paper focuses on Zambia, drawing on multiple primary datasets to shed light on both the scale and nature of Chinese migration to the continent. Two years of Department of Immigration employment-permit data serve as the basis for the first quantitative analysis of the “Chinese” in “Africa,” illuminating the increasing diversity of this population flow. While the growing Chinese presence in Africa is often viewed as a coherent neocolonialist strategy planned and implemented by the Chinese state, this paper demonstrates that it is in fact typified by a multitude of both public and private actors with independent motives.
Oktober 30, 2017, 11:53 am, Karin Buhmann, Allgemein.
China’s economic engagement in Africa has been subject to criticism on social and environmental fronts. This analysis examines two sets of guidelines launched by the government-related China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals. Aiming to promote responsible investment in the minerals sector and due diligence to ensure socially responsible sourcing of minerals with a particular focus on human rights, the guidelines refer to international human rights standards and are designed to be consistent with guidance issued by the OECD. The article discusses the Chinese guidelines as responses to the international critique and concludes they are elements of China’s soft-power efforts meant to enhance the country’s reputation as a responsible actor on the global stage. The analysis comes from the perspective of China’s deployment of state-driven corporate social responsibility (CSR), its complex relationship with international human rights, and its engagement with the international business and human rights (BHR) regime.
Oktober 30, 2017, 11:53 am, Camilla T. N. Sørensen, Allgemein.
Is it possible for authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran to combine the soft power narratives directed primarily towards an international audience with the narratives directed primarily towards a domestic audience that are aimed at maintaining regime security? To investigate this question, this article analyses the 2015 military parade in Beijing, using this case to highlight and discuss the constraints on Chinese leaders’ efforts to project soft power. The key finding is that soft power will continue to be the weak link in China’s pursuit of a great power position and status as long as what continues to count as “Chinese” is defined in opposition to hostile “others” and the humiliation narrative continues to function as the central identity marker in the party-led construction of national identity (the “us”).
Oktober 30, 2017, 11:53 am, Ane Bislev, Allgemein.
Chinese international students have become an increasingly visible presence around the globe, and interest in these students has consequently increased among universities, researchers, and policy-makers, who often see international students as a source…