Transnational StudiesSOC 783

B. Nadya JaworskyRoom 3.59

Tuesdays 16:00 – 18:00Wednesdays 14:00 – 15:40

Final Research Essay Timeline• November 23, 2010 - One-paragraph statement

explaining your choice of topic is due via e-mail.• December 14, 2010 - (before last class at 14:00) A

short (1-2 pp.) preliminary summary of your work is due via e-mail.

• January 17, 2011 - FINAL ESSAY IS DUE FOR MASTER’S STUDENT SITTING FOR THE STATE EXAM.

• January 31, 2010 - FINAL ESSAY IS DUE VIA E-MAIL by 23:59.

TQS shorthand:

• I am working on the TOPIC of…

• …because I want to find out how or why... (QUESTION)

• …so that I can help others understand how or why.... (Significance/SO WHAT)

Use the parts of an argument to guide your research:

• What’s the answer to your research question? (CLAIM)

• Why should I believe that? • (REASONS)• How do you know that reason to be true?

(EVIDENCE)• But have you considered this view?

(ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & RESPONSE)

Miraflores, D.R.

What are “Transnational Villages?”

• Actual migration is not necessary to be a member

• They emerge at least partially because of social remittances (the ideas behaviors and social capital that flow from receiving to sending communities)

• They create and are created by organizations that themselves come to act across borders

• They are studies in contrast

SOCIAL REMITTANCESPatterns of interaction with the host society:• Recipient observers• Instrumental adapters• Purposeful innovators (sponges)

Types of social remittances:• Normative structures – ideas, values and beliefs – pp.

59-60• Systems of practice – the actions shaped by

normative structures• Social capital

CULTURAL DIFFUSION AND SOCIAL REMITTANCES

How social remittances are transmitted differently from other types of global cultural dissemination:•It is possible to specify how social remittances flow•they are transmitted systematically and intentionally•they are transmitted between individuals that know one another or have mutual social ties• the timing can be multi-staged – macro-level material can come first and ease the way

What determines the nature and the magnitude of the impact of social remittances?

• The nature of the remittance itself• The nature of the transnational system• The characteristics of the messenger• The target audience• Differences in sending & receiving

countries• Features of the transmission process

Re-shaping stages of the life cycle

• Childrearing; what is it like to be brought up between borders?

• School • Earning a living• Adult family life• Feasibility of return

Making values from two worlds fit

• Gender• Race• Right and wrong

Typology of religious forms (from God Needs No Passport)

• Transnational religious corporations (Catholic Church, Anglican Church)

• National religious groups acting across borders (Hindu groups in India)

• flexibly specialized religious networks (horizontal, loosely coupled ties, decentralized)

• Transnational supply chains (depend on inputs from abroad)

Core themes

• Transnational Villages• Social Remittances• Cultural Diffusion• Migration and Gender• Migration and Race• Values between two worlds• Transnational Politics• Transnational Religion

Remainder of Syllabus

•9th Seminar: Corporations, Classes & Capitalism–Karol Pribula

•10th Seminar: Non-state Actors, NGOs and Social Movements- Monika Naglova

•11th Seminar: Security, Crime and Violence (focus on terrorism)

•12th Seminar: Methodological Practices – what does it mean to use a ‘transnational lens’ to study social phenomena?