Narrating marriage: negotiating practices and politics of belonging of Afghan return migrants

ABSTRACT

This article explores Afghan return migrants’ strategies and constraints to identify with the different spaces of belonging they encountered, through their expressions and practices of marriage. We take an in-depth approach to the life histories of 35 voluntary and involuntary Afghan returnees from European countries. We find that in narrating and performing different marriage practices, some Afghan return migrants construct fixed boundaries between different spaces of belonging, while others try to construct these boundaries as permeable and hybrid. Gender and mobility strongly define the way in which return migrants narrate and perform marriage as a cultural practice that determines who belongs, who wants to belong and who is able to belong. We conclude that while openly negotiating hybrid practices within a delicate theme such as marriage requires careful negotiation of boundaries, mobility can improve the extent to which return migrants can apply inventive and hybrid identifications for their personal needs and desires.     

Inequality in new global governance arrangements: the North–South divide in transnational municipal networks

Networks are often portrayed as more equal governance arrangements because of their horizontal character. Power relations within networks are neglected as the collaborative activities receive the bulk of attention. However, from a critical reading of the network and flows literature we know that networks are not free of power relations, and that they create new inequalities and even intensify existing ones. Using Manuel Castells's conceptual framework on power in networks, this article studies power relations in two transnational municipal networks that address urban environmental challenges: the World Association of the Major Metropolises and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. Power relations that result from informational and ideational flows are at the core of attention. The paper reveals contributor/receiver linkages and their consequences. The conclusions are framed by reflections on the significance of cities from the Global South in new global governance arrangements.     

The Political Economy of “Transnational Business Feminism”

This article traces the emergence of a politico-economic project of “transnational business feminism” (TBF) over the past decade. This project – which is being developed by a coalition of states, financial institutions, the UN, corporations, NGOs and others – stresses the “business case” for gender equality by arguing that investments made in women can (and should) be measured in terms of the cost savings to families and communities, as well as in terms of boosting corporate profitability and national competitiveness. This article uses a feminist historical materialist framework to argue that TBF is facilitating the further entrenchment of the power of corporations to create “expert” knowledges about both “gender” and “development.” Using the Nike-led “Girl Effect” campaign as an example, it is argued that TBF is promoting a naturalized and essentialized view of women and gender relations that ignores the historical and structural causes of poverty and gender-based inequality. It is also helping to reproduce the same neoliberal macroeconomic framework that has created and sustained gender-based and other forms of oppression via the global feminization of labor, the erosion of support for social reproduction and the splintering of feminist critiques of capitalism.     

Structuring Transnational Spaces of Identity,Rights and Power in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

This paper critically examines the ways in which global–local flows interpenetrate each other and mesh, simultaneously undermining and empowering the forces of local resistance, using the Niger Delta as a case study. It explores the response of local resistance groups to ‘globalization from below’, by appropriating global structures and tapping into transnational networks to empower their identity, rights, and claims in the oil-rich, but impoverished Niger Delta. Space is conceptualized as the transnational multiscalar social terrain of power, which is critical both as a site of struggle and as expression of the global logic of oil capital. Applied to an explanation of the globalization of extraction and resistance in the oil-rich Niger Delta, this article posits that a lot will depend on the balance of power between the social forces in the region, the oil multinationals, and the Nigerian state, and the capacity of the forces of resistance to tap into and creatively use existing transnational space(s) and discourses to push an agenda of social emancipation and grassroots democracy.

Este artículo examina las maneras como los flujos locales y globales se interpenetran entre sí y engranan, debilitando y fortaleciendo simultáneamente a las fuerzas de la resistencia local, usando el Delta del Níger como estudio de caso. El mismo explora la respuesta a la resistencia de los grupos locales a la ‘globalización desde abajo’, mediante la apropiación de estructuras globales y sacando provecho de las redes transnacionales para fortalecer sus identidad, derechos y demandas en el Delta del Níger, rico en petróleo, pero empobrecido. El espacio se ha conceptualizado como un terreno de poder social trasnacional y multiescalar que es crítico para ambos sitios de conflicto y como expresión de la lógica global del capital del petróleo. Este artículo hace referencia a una explicación de la globalización en la extracción y la resistencia del Delta del Níger, rico en petróleo y postula que mucho depende del equilibrio del poder entre las fuerzas sociales de la región, las multinacionales del petróleo y el estado de Nigeria, y la capacidad de las fuerzas de resistencia de beneficiarse y creativamente usar el(los) espacio(s) y tratados para promover la agenda de emancipación social y democracia de base.

     

Activists beyond Brussels: Transnational NGO Strategies on EU–West African Trade Negotiations

The literature on civil society interaction with European trade policy-making limits its analysis on Brussels-based campaigning and finds low impact levels. At the same time, the EU identifies global civil society as one factor of explaining the stalling of trade negotiations with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. This article presents a case study of NGO campaigns on the EU–West African trade negotiations to suggest that the growing complexity of global governance presents the same political opportunities for non-state actor participation in trade as they have been shown to skilfully use in other policy domains. It concludes that political economy studies should integrate insights from the transnational activism literature in order to better grasp the effects of ongoing globalisations on trade policy-making.

La literatura sobre la interacción de la sociedad civil con la elaboración de políticas comerciales europeas, se limitan a analizar las campañas basadas en Bruselas, encontrando niveles de bajo impacto. A su vez, la UE identifica a la sociedad civil globalizada, como un factor que explica el estancamiento de las negociaciones comerciales con los países africanos, caribeños y del Pacífico. Este artículo presenta un estudio de caso de las campañas de una ONG sobre las negociaciones comerciales entre la UE y África occidental, que sugiere que la creciente complejidad de la gobernabilidad global, provee las mismas oportunidades políticas de participación en el comercio de actores no estatales, como lo han utilizado hábilmente en otros campos políticos. El artículo concluye que los estudios de política económica deben incluir conocimientos de la literatura sobre el activismo trasnacional, con el fin de comprender mejor cómo se afecta la elaboración de políticas comerciales en el ámbito de una globalización cada vez mayor.

关于市民社会与欧洲贸易政策制定互动作用的文献将其分析局限于以布鲁塞尔为基地的运动,研究发现其影响力处于低水平。与此同时,欧盟将全球市民社会认定为是解释欧盟与非洲、加勒比以及太平洋国家贸易谈判停滞的一个作用因素。本文展现欧盟—西非贸易谈判中一个非政府组织运动的案例,认为全球治理的日益复杂表明,非国家行为体在贸易中的政治参与机会,正如在其他政策领域已表明熟练运用的机会一样。本文的结论是,政治经济研究应当将跨国政治活动主义文献中产生的洞见整合进来,更好地捕捉正在经历的全球化对贸易政策制定的影响。     

Local Armed Uprisings and the Transnational Image of Claim Making: The Kurds of Turkey and the Zapatistas of Mexico in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore why and how some local armed uprisings are able to go global with a transnational image of ‘social justice’ while others fail to build such image despite becoming transnational. The cases to be analyzed in the article are the pro-Kurdish mobilization in the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and the pro-Mayan Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) movement in Mexico. In explaining the relative success of the latter, the study seeks to make connections with the globalization literature in general and the transnational social movement literature in particular. Particularly, the article focuses on the ability of social movements to market their causes in international arena with a good image. Overall, this study lays out several key strategic differences between the two movements such as the holding and the use of arms, duration of armed resistance, and the leadership and organizational structure to unpack why some social movements are more successful to market their causes as a just cause within ‘global civil society’ and why others fail to do so ending with being listed as a terrorist organization.     

Translatio Vampyri: Transamerican Vampires and Transnational Capital in Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos

Abstract

‘As an act of disruption’, writes Emily Apter, ‘translation becomes a means of repositioning the subject in the world and in history’. The vampires in Guillermo del Toro’s film Cronos (1993) reveal similar ‘disruptions’, ‘repositionings’,and translations. Del Toro’s reinvented vampires embody on the screen – even as they are caught within – transnational webs of storytelling and neoliberal capitalism. Cronos dramatizes the transamerican exploitation of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) at the same time as it visually remakes the hemispheric and transatlantic filmic/literary trope of the vampire. Del Toro’s neo-gothic recreations, and socio-economic commentaries, ‘translate’ the vampire from a European backdrop of bloodthirsty counts and ruined castles to a globalized Mexican metropolis full of bustling streets, middle-class life, and grimy assembly plants. That translation reveals and disrupts the vampiric logic of modern transamerican economies.     

Amnesia: Cultural Memory,Reconciliation, and Communal Accountability in the Americas

Contributing to debates on the status of comparison in transnational American studies, this essay offers a morphologically comparative approach to memory’s cultural politics in conflict resolution, juxtaposing two histo-ries — one ‘geo-political’ (nation-state, transatlantic) and the other ‘micro-history’ (small-town, regional) — whose ensuing negotiations unsettle paradigms of silencing and forgetting, especially as these pertain to ‘reconciliation’. Offering an alternative to predominantly psychoanalytic treatments of cultural memory and power, this essay employs morphological analysis and queer theory to explore cultural amnesia through blending ethnographic and media sources on the politics of it in the assignment of accountability and belonging.     

On becoming Mexican in Napa: Mexican immigrant girls negotiating challenges to transnational identities

This article examines the ethnic identity formation of high school aged Mexican immigrant adolescent girls. The ethnic identity is new to them and acts as a coping mechanism that allows them to confront the racial order and gender monitoring they experience at home and at their high school. Being Mexican allows them to make meaning of their immigrant experience. The author contends that these girls rather than disconnecting from their national ethnic identity are developing a stronger sense of being Mexican than if they had never left Mexico. However, developing a strong sense of being Mexican comes with challenges. This article is based on 20 unstructured interviews conducted at a local high school in Napa, California. The interviews trace the identity transitions and challenges each girl experienced both before migration and after they arrived in the US. The author finds that they develop an ethnic identity based on their memories of Mexico that they share amongst each other where they long to continue to be part of their old community. The stories of girls point to the identity transitions Mexican immigrant youth experience. Their stories also point to how identities are not clean sequential transitions, but are rather messy, conflicting, and contradictory.