Place, networks, space: theorising the geographies of social movements

This essay examines how geography affects the different types of networks underlying social movements. The principal argument of the paper is that networks forged in particular places and at great distances play distinctive yet complementary functions in broad-based social movements. Not only does the articulation of these different types of networks result in complementary roles, but it also introduces key relational dynamics affecting the stability of the entire social movement. The purpose of the paper is therefore threefold: to provide a conceptual framework for interpreting the complex geographies of contemporary social movement networks, to stress the contributions of place-based relations in social movements and to assess how activist places connect to form 'social movement space'.     

Interpreting collective action: Methodology and ideology in the analysis of social movements in France

The meaning of contentious collective action has itself always been open to contention. This is true not only of the historiography of revolutions, for example, but also of social science analyses of other, arguably less extreme, forms of contemporary 'contestation'. While up to the 1960s studies of collective action in Europe focused largely on the labour movement, since then much attention has also been paid to 'new' social movements. This article examines some of the methodological and ideological considerations which have shaped the analysis of social movements in France and influenced the debate in recent years as to their significance.     

Caring at a distance: gift theory,aid chains and social movements

This paper takes as its starting point recent work on caring for distant others which is one expression of renewed interest in moral geographies. It examines relationships in aid chains connecting donors/carers in the First World or North and recipients/cared for in the Third World or South. Assuming predominance of relationships between strangers and of universalism as a basis for moral motivation I draw upon Gift Theory in order to characterize two basic forms of gift relationship. The first is purely altruistic, the other fully reciprocal and obligatory within the framework of institutions, values and social forces within specific relationships of politics and power. This conception problematizes donor–recipient relationships in the context of two modernist models of aid chains—the Resource Transfer and the Beyond Aid Paradigms. In the first, donor domination means low levels of reciprocity despite rhetoric about partnership and participation. The second identifies potential for greater reciprocity on the basis of combination between social movements and non‐governmental organizations at both national and trans‐national levels, although at the risk of marginalizing competencies of states. Finally, I evaluate post‐structural critiques which also problematize aid chain relationships. They do so both in terms of bases—such as universals and difference—upon which it might be constructed and the means—such as forms of positionality and mutuality—by which it might be achieved.     

跨国主义的移民研究——欧美学者的观点和贡献

在已有研究的基础上,从跨国移民的政治选择、跨国移民的经济贡献、跨国移民的文化再造、跨国移民的活动领域、回归移民的再适应、跨国主义移民研究等多方面介绍和评述了欧美学界跨国主义移民研究的主要观点、基本内容和特征以及学术贡献,并对跨国移民研究中需要进一步探讨的问题进行了梳理.     

Transnationalism in the Era of Nation-States: China, 1900–1945

Transnationalism tends to be seen as a late twentieth century development associated with advanced capitalism, flexible production and post-modernism. However, if, as many claim, nationalism emerged in the era of capitalism, then it surely had to deal with the boundary-crossing and globalizing impetus of capitalism from its inception. This article explores how nationalist regimes and spokesmen dealt with the transnational flows, demands, and ideals generated not only by capitalism, but by historical forces such as universalizing religions and the distribution and movement of populations across territorial nations. Focusing on East Asia in the first half of the twentieth century, three cases are studied: the convergence of Chinese and Japanese ideals of pan-Asianism; the Chinese republican regime's effort to incorporate the non-Chinese peoples of the vast peripheries into the territorial nation-state; and this regime's efforts to cultivate the loyalty of overseas Chinese to the nation-state. Mobilizing and deploying these transterritorial phenomena was crucial to the nation-state's internal power, yet such a mobilization tended to transgress the conception of territorial sovereignty upon which the nation-state was equally dependent both domestically and internationally. The recent signs of a tendency for the territorially sovereign nation to develop into a deterritorialized nation has consequences that can only be understood in the context of the nation's relationship to transnational forces in this earlier period.     

Exercising Exit,Voice and Loyalty: A Gender Perspective on Transnationalism in Haiti

This article explores gendered patterns of migration and transnationalism in Haiti. A combination of factors has prompted extensive rural–urban migration and emigration over the last three decades: violence, repression, economic collapse and the implementation of neo‐liberal reforms have left many Haitians with few options other than to seek a new life elsewhere. Although many Haitians abroad naturalize and take citizenship in host countries, emigration does not mean that ties to their homeland are severed. Indeed, a substantial number of Haitians remain intimately connected to Haiti, visiting, sending remittances and gifts, investing in land and exercising political voice in Haiti and in their country of residence. This article focuses on the gender dimension of Haitian migration and transnationalism drawing on Hirschman's typology of exit, voice and loyalty. These options are uniquely gendered. Although most analyses of transnational citizenship focus on men, women and women's movements in Haiti have also benefited from transnational organizing and the transnational links forged over the past three decades. Through migration, women have participated in changing the financial architecture and political landscape of Haiti. Expressions of voice and loyalty by women are challenging traditional gender roles in Haiti and contributing to an emerging transnationalism that has profound effects on Haitians and their communities at home and abroad.     

冷战后华人移民的跨国民族主义——以美国华人社会为例

冷战后,跨国主义、民族主义方兴未艾,而国际移民,特别是发展中国家的跨国移民及其民族主义倾向与表现正在成为移民研究的一个新视点。本文以美国华人社会为例,运用跨国主义的分析视角,探讨冷战后华人民族主义掀起的背景、主体、特征、局限与前景,从而说明海外华人民族主义的群体征象之于中国与居住国的双重影响和多种意义。     

Fleshing out the geographies of social movements: Colombia's Pacific coast black communities and the ‘aquatic space’

The intersections between the concepts of space, place and resistance have recently received increasing attention from geographers dedicated to the study of social movements. Space and place are not merely seen as providing a physical background for mobilisations but as mutually constitutive of social movement agency. Yet, critics of theoretical frameworks drawn up by geographers have often rightly pointed to the lack of convincing empirical evidence presented in their support.This paper addresses these critiques by offering a theoretically informed and empirically grounded account of recent mobilisations by the social movement of black communities in the Pacific coast region of Colombia. Drawing on both the objective aspects of place and the subjective feelings that are derived from living in a place, I will show how these mechanisms have impacted on the specific spatial organising forms adopted by black communities. In particular, I will propose the concept of ‘aquatic space’ as a set of spatialised social relationships among Afro-Colombians, and show how these concrete everyday geographies have been drawn upon by black communities in the establishment of community councils along river basins.The paper argues that to make a strong point for more spatially sensitive analyses of social movements, geographers have to sustain their theoretical frameworks with concrete empirical data that not only illustrate spatial processes at play, but also convincingly demonstrate their very embeddedness in social practice. I thus argue for a strong consideration of ethnographies as a privileged research methodology to flesh out the geographies of social movements.     

海外华人跨国主义实践的模式及其差异——基于美国与新加坡的比较分析

论文参考有关跨国主义的理论文献和实证研究,分析了移民个人、移民社会以及民族国家在国际移民进程和跨国活动中所扮演的不同角色,考察了在美国和新加坡的华人新移民及其社团组织与祖籍国之间互动模式的变化。结果显示,由于国际移民的迁移历史以及移居国(地)结构的多重差异,导致了海外华人社会在人口构成和族裔社区建设等方面存在显著差异。个人、社团、祖籍国和移居国实际上并不是单方面地影响着海外华人的跨国活动及其与祖籍国的互动关系,他们的互动关系还受到国家关系和地缘政治等宏观因素的制约。因此,国际移民参与跨国活动的主要目的是为了寻求更好的、更广阔的创业和就业机会,以便提高个人和族群在移居国的社会地位,但其结果因移居国社会的结构因素影响而产生差异。