Towards Transnational Studies: World Theories, Transnationalisation and Changing Institutions

Abstract

A transnational studies perspective should be able to deal with both new social formations sui generis, such as transnational social spaces, and how ‘old’ national, international and local institutions acquire ‘new’ meanings and functions in the process of cross-border transactions. There is now a voluminous literature dealing with the emergence and above all the forms of transnational activities of migrants and the attendant consequences for the social integration of immigrants. If transnational ties and formations are consequential for social change and perhaps even social transformation, we also need to find indications about changing institutions in the national, international and local realms of transnational spaces. From this perspective we need not only to look at various transnational ties and formations across the borders of national states, but also at the repercussions for national and local institutions. In order to address this problem, the paper argues that both the concept of transnationalisation—including transnational social spaces—and world approaches, such as world systems and world polity theories, could be useful lenses to describe different aspects of transnational processes and boundaries. Second, transnational studies needs to engage both world theories and a transnational optic to ask about the social mechanisms by which transnational processes affect institutional change: path-dependency on a systemic or macro level, social closure, opportunity hoarding and brokerage on a collective or meso level, and symbolic recognition on a cognitive or micro level.

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