300069 New Perspectives on Transnationalization (S) (SoSe 2006)

In this seminar participants discuss (1) conceptual work dealing with transnational perspectives on issues relating to migration, citizenship and development, and (2) work-in-progress which broadly deals with questions of the transnational or global social order. At the core are issues of development politics and policies, transnational social policy, international migration and integration, transnational viz. transstate social spaces, democracy and citizenship. The goal is to take stock of some developments in the study of transnationalization. There is a need to not only study the consequences of transnationalization ?top down?, as in the state-centric paradigm of global governance, but also ?bottom up?, as implied by the transnational turn. In doing so, this seminar identifies questions for further research and offers some methodological venues for the study of transnationalization. The analysis overcomes the less than fruitful discussion of whether political transnationalization is a ?new? process associated with the waves of international South-North and East-West migration that have been on their way after the 1960s, or whether it is an ?old? process that could be observed already during and after the ?old? migration which took place, for example, in the transatlantic migration system of the late 19th and early 20th century.

In particular, this seminar is meant to help graduate students and doctoral candidates to conceptualize their thesis papers, conduct research and write the final version. Among other things students learn to select relevant literatures, develop a research design and evaluate empirical data.

Bibliography

Text for Preparation: Thomas Faist (2004): Towards a Political Sociology of Transnationalization. Archives Européennes de Sociologie 45, 3: 331-366