greiner und sakdapolrak - translocality - submitted version

Accepted for publication in Geography Compass

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Translocality: Concepts, applications and emerging research perspectives 1

Clemens Greiner & Patrick Sakdapolrak 2

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Abstract 4

The employment of translocality as a research perspective is currently gaining 5

momentum. A growing number of scholars from different research traditions 6

concerned with the dynamics of mobility, migration and socio-spatial 7

interconnectedness have developed conceptual approaches to the term. They 8

usually build on insights from transnationalism, while at the same time attempting to 9

overcome some of the limitations of this long-established research perspective. As 10

such, translocality is used to describe socio-spatial dynamics and processes of 11

simultaneity and identity formation that transcend boundaries including, but also 12

extending beyond, those of nation states. In this review we trace the emergence of 13

the idea of translocality and summarise the characteristics that different authors 14

associate with the term. We elucidate the underlying notions of mobility and place, 15

and sketch out fields of research where the concept has been employed. On the 16

basis of our findings, we conclude by proposing key areas where a translocal 17

approach has the potential to generate fruitful insights. 18

Key words: translocality, spatial theory, migration, transnationalism 19

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Why write about translocality? 21

Translocality has come into vogue. As a catchword it appears in the writings of 22

scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, such as geography (Castree 23

2004, Conradson and McKay 2007, Steinbrink 2009, Brickell and Datta 2011b, 24

Featherstone 2011, Hedberg and do Carmo 2012a, Verne 2012), history and area 25

studies (Oakes and Schein 2006b, Freitag and von Oppen 2010b), cultural studies 26

(Ma 2002, Bennett and Peterson 2004), anthropology (Escobar 2001, Appadurai 27

2003, Peleikis 2003, Marion 2005, Argenti and Rschenthaler 2006, Nez-Madrazo 28

2007, Gottowik 2010, Greiner 2010) and development studies (Grillo and Riccio 29

2004, Zoomers and Westen 2011). Sometimes, translocality (or translocalism) is 30

merely used as a synonym for transnationalism. In most cases, however, it is used to 31

build upon and extend insights from this long-established research tradition. As such, 32

the term usually describes phenomena involving mobility, migration, circulation, and 33

spatial interconnectedness not necessarily limited to national boundaries. But what 34

can the idea of translocality offer beyond these obvious similarities? How is it defined 35

by those authors who employ it? Is it merely an extension of transnationalism, or 36

should it be understood as a theoretical concept in its own right? 37

In this review, we critically engage with these questions. We start by tracing the 38

conceptual relation between transnationalism and translocality and explore how the 39

latter serves to overcome some of the conceptual weaknesses of the former. We 40

then turn to the current literature in order to determine the similarities and differences 41

between the various current definitions of translocalism and to explore two central 42

dimensions of the concept: mobility and place. We briefly review research areas 43

where the concept has been applied so far, and by extension postulate that the 44

concept should be considered a research perspective in its own right (rather than 45


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merely an extension of transnationalism). We conclude by pointing out some of the 46

concept's potentialities. 47

48

Expanding the concept of transnationalism 49

When theories of transnationalism emerged out of the necessity to conceptualise 50

social fields that increasingly transcended national borders and to challenge existing 51

concepts of nationhood and citizenship (Basch, Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 52

1995), they were primarily concerned with processes of de-territorialisation and 53

notions of spatially unbounded communities (Hannerz 1996, Castells 2000, 54

Appadurai 2003). While the concept of rootedness, understood as a firm 55

relationship between identity and territory, has been questioned in Social 56

Anthropology and related disciplines (Malkki 1992; Gupta and Ferguson 1992), 57

empirical studies point to a global (re-)emergence of territorialised notions of 58

belonging and of ethno-nationalist movements (Geschiere 2009), which have led to 59

an academic rediscovery of the importance of the local (Kokot 2007). Since the mid-60

1990s scholars of transnationalism have engaged with more localised phenomena of 61

international migration (Ley 2004). This shift has been reflected in growing concerns 62

over local-to-local relations (Guarnizo and Smith 1998), transnational urbanism 63

(Smith 2001) and cultural sites (Olwig 1997), which contributed to more 64

territorialised notions of transnationalism, and highlighted the articulation of global 65

and local dynamics in specific localities such as cities, neighbourhoods, homes and 66

families. While transnationalism is clearly an attempt to overcome the limitations of 67

methodological nationalism (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002), the primary concern 68

still rests on the transgression of and exchange beyond national borders. The 69

concept furthermore remains deeply anchored in the notion of the world as formed 70

ioana


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and ordered by a static framework of clearly distinguishable scales (Amelina 2010; 71

Verne 2012). 72

Authors applying the concept of translocality commonly base their writings on the 73

insights of transnational approaches. Following the shift toward a more grounded 74

transnationalism (Brickell and Datta 2011a, p. 3), they are concerned with local 75

contexts and the situatedness of mobile actors. At the same time, they expand their 76

analytical focus beyond the limits of the nation-state (Oakes and Schein 2006b) by 77

focusing on various other dimensions of border transgressions and on socio-spatial 78

configurations beyond those induced by human migration (Uimonen 2009, Gottowik 79

2010). This move has been long overdue for various reasons. 80

Firstly, from a historical standpoint, in much of the Global South nation-building is a 81

recent phenomenon, while interregional exchange dates back much further (for 82

example throughout the Arab world or within the Indian Ocean region; Freitag and 83

von Oppen 2010a, Verne 2012). Secondly, international boundaries in many former 84

colonies were drawn arbitrarily and enforced only poorly, as a consequence of which 85

the distinction between domestic and international migration is almost rendered 86

obsolete. In much of Africa, for example, international migration sometimes involves 87

relatively shorter distances and less social heterogeneity () and fewer barriers than 88

internal migration (Adepoju 2006, p. 28). Thirdly, the focus on transnational 89

movements has led to the neglect of internal migration, which makes up the bigger 90

share of global migration dynamics (Trager 2005). According to recent estimates of 91

the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) there are currently about 740 92

million internal migrants worldwide, while the number of international migrants is 93

comparatively small; only 214 million (UNDP 2009, p. 21). Fourthly, socio-economic 94

disparities and spatially uneven development, which are often considered major 95


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push-and-pull factors in international migration (Faist and Reisenauer 2009), not only 96

occur between nations but are also apparent within national borders. Lastly, research 97

on transnational migrant communities shows that migrants everyday social practices 98

are informed by their localised experiences. Significant articulations, therefore, have 99

to be understood as local-to-local interactions (Smith 2001, Nez-Madrazo 2007). 100

Against this background, some authors consider translocality as the more general 101

concept (Hedberg & Do Carmo, 2012), and Freitag and von Oppen (2010a, p. 12) 102

aptly remark that transnationalism appears to be merely a special case of 103

translocalism. 104

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Defining Translocality 106

Scrutinizing the growing literature on translocality, one is confronted with a multitude 107

of terms, revolving around notions of mobility, connectedness, networks, place, 108

locality and locales, flows, travel, transfer and circulatory knowledge. Some authors 109

seek conceptual coherence by synthesising these terms with reference to different 110

bodies of social theory (e.g. Bourdieu, Giddens) (e.g. Steinbrink 2009; Brickell and 111

Datta 2011; Greiner and Sakdapolrak 2012), while others use translocality as an 112

umbrella term to describe mobilities and multiple forms of spatial connectedness 113

(e.g. Grillo and Riccio 2004; Ma 2002). 114

Along these lines, Tenhunen (2011: 416, n.1), for example, defines translocality as 115

relations that extend beyond the village community. For Mandaville (2002, p. 204), 116

translocality is a space in which new forms of (post)national identity are constituted. 117

Similarly, Freitag and von Oppen (2010a, p. 5) use translocality as a descriptive tool 118

that refers to the sum of phenomena which result from a multitude of circulations and 119


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transfers. As such, they use this perspective to challenge the regional limitations 120

often implicit in area studies, and emphasise that the world is constituted through 121

processes that transgress boundaries on different scales, which results in the 122

production and reproduction of spatial differences. A translocal perspective enables 123

research into these processes in a more open and less linear way, and captures the 124

diverse and contradictory effects of interconnectedness between places, institutions 125

and actors. It overcomes the limitations of nationalist historiographies and facilitates 126

a non-Eurocentric understanding of global history as constituted by processes of 127

entanglement and interconnectedness (Freitag and von Oppen 2010a, p. 1). 128

Focusing on the multiple forms of mobility in contemporary China, Oakes and Schein 129

(2006b) deploy the term translocality to capture the implications of these dynamics. 130

Translocality is defined as being identified with more than one location (Oakes and 131

Schein 2006a, p. xiii). As such, the concept is used to simultaneously address 132

localities and mobilities within a holistic context. In a similar vein, authors such as 133

Brickell and Datta (2011a) use the concept to develop an agency-oriented approach 134

to these dynamics. They draw on Bourdieus concepts of habitus and social fields to 135

address the agents simultaneous situatedness across different locales (ibid, 4). 136

Through the notion of habitus, as Brickell and Datta (2011a, p. 13) highlight, the 137

translocal, where multi-scalar engagements of mobile and immobile actors are 138

formed by localized context and everyday practices, emerges at the same time as 139

the material, spatial and embodied. In translocal social fields, which are 140

characterised by uneven power relationships, mobile and immobile actors negotiate 141

and struggle over power and positions through the exchange of various capitals 142

which are valued differently across different scales (e.g. Kelly and Lusis 2006). This 143

view acknowledges what Massey (1991, p. 25) coined the power geometry of time-144


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space compression, which draws attention to questions such as who moves and 145

who does not, how power relations are differentiated in flows and movements, and 146

how power and powerlessness are experienced simultaneously in different locations. 147

Hedberg and do Carmo (2012a) employ translocality to facilitate an understanding of 148

the relational dimensions of space created through mobility. Such an approach 149

overcomes the notion of container spaces and the dichotomy between here and 150

there, between rural and urban (Steinbrink 2009, Greiner 2010). Translocality 151

thus refers to the emergence of multidirectional and overlapping networks that 152

facilitate the circulation of people, resources, practices and ideas. Steinbrink (2009) 153

draws on Giddens Structuration Theory (Giddens 1984) to point out that translocal 154

networks are both structured by the actions of the people involved and at the same 155

time provide a structure for these very actions (see also Greiner and Sakdapolrak 156

2012). 157

With regard to scale, Verne (2012, p. 17) emphasises that translocality does not only 158

mean the addition of a translocal scale between the global and the local. This, she 159

argues, would merely reify the notion of hierarchical and clearly distinguishable 160

scales implicit in studies on transnationalism. Instead, a translocal perspective draws 161

on insights gained from research on scales (e.g. Smith 1995, Agnew 1997, Delaney 162

and Leitner 1997, Swyngedouw, 1997), which has shown, as Brown and Purcell 163

(2005, p. 609) summarizes, that socio-spatial scales are a) not given a priori, but 164

rather socially produced, b) simultaneously fluid and fixed and c) fundamentally 165

relational. In acknowledging these insights, the translocal perspective acknowledges 166

intermediary arrangements, fluidity and intermingling processes (Verne 2012, p. 17-167

18) crucial for the understanding of the dynamic quality and effects of various socio-168

spatialities (Amelina 2010). 169


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To sum up, authors use translocality to capture complex social-spatial interactions in 170

a holistic, actor-oriented and multi-dimensional understanding. The central idea of 171

translocality is aptly synthesised by Brickell and Datta (2011a, p. 3) as situatedness 172

during mobility. Authors engaging in the development of a translocal perspective 173

seek to integrate notions of fluidity and discontinuity associated with mobilities, 174

movements and flows on the one hand with notions of fixity, groundedness and 175

situatedness in particular settings on the other. Beyond this, however, what kind of 176

mobilities and movements are authors referring to when writing about translocality? 177

And how are the notions of situatedness and groundedness conceived? In the 178

following sections, we address these questions. 179

(Im)mobilities, movements and flows 180

Central to the notion of translocality is a holistic perspective on mobilities, movements 181

and flows, and the way in which these dynamics produce connectedness between 182

different scales. The majority of studies are primarily concerned with movements of 183

people. This concern is not restricted to transnational migration but also includes 184

various forms of internal migration as well as commuting and everyday movements 185

both within cities and between rural and urban areas (Hedberg and do Carmo 186

2012b). Many authors, however, are not concerned with mobile actors alone. They 187

also pay attention to those segments of the population that are considered immobile, 188

as they form a crucial dimension of connectedness (Brickell and Datta 2011a, Rau 189

2012). For Sun (2006, p. 240), this includes paying attention to those who talk, 190

speculate, and fantasize about certain places and to those who remember 191

experiences of familiar places. Such perspectives remind us that translocal spaces 192

are constantly co-produced by mobile and immobile populations. The often arduous 193

negotiation of physical co-presence by multiply located actors regarding, for example 194


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participation and non-participation in important social occasions, is a central aspect in 195

what Conradson and McKay (2007) describe as translocal subjectivities. 196

Although movement of people is of prime concern in many studies, this is but one 197

aspect of translocality. The concept also refers to material flows, such as those of 198

remittances (Long 2008) and goods (Verne 2012), and symbolic flows such as 199

movements of styles, ideas, images and symbols (Ma 2002, Lange and Bttner 2010, 200

Reetz 2010). One aspect of this latter dimension of translocality is the visualisation 201

and imagining of linkages between places, what Brickell and Datta (2011a, p. 18) 202

refer to as translocal imagination. 203

For an understanding of these connections, networks are of particular concern, as 204

they facilitate repeated flows of knowledge and communication, and of political, 205

cultural and economic activities between places (Hedberg and do Carmo 2012a). 206

Migrants and non-migrants are embedded in these networks, which are as much an 207

outcome of as a precondition for translocal practices (Steinbrink 2009). The position 208

of actors within these networks, in turn, influences the access those actors have to 209

various resources (Zoomers and Westen 2011). Research on migration, both 210

international (e.g. Singer and Massey (1998) for the case of undocumented border 211

crossing of Mexican migrants) and internal (e.g. Peth (2012) for the case of rural-rural 212

labour migration in Bangladesh) has vividly pointed out the role of networks in 213

overcoming mobility barriers and facilitating border transgression. At the same time 214

these studies also show the exclusionary power of networks for those actors who 215

have insufficient resources, be they financial, cultural or symbolic, to be able to 216

access them (e.g. Kothari 2002). Dissatisfied with conventional approaches to 217

networks, McFarlane (2009, p. 566) suggests a notion of translocal assemblages as 218

an alternative way to conceive of spatial connectedness as mediated by processes of 219


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disassemblage and reassemblage of history, labour, materiality and performance. 220

In a similar vein, Verne (2010, p. 23-31) departs from the shortcoming of a 221

conventional understanding of networks and proposes the metaphor of rhizome 222

(Deluze and Guattari 1976) as a means by which to grasp the complexity, dynamics 223

and relationality of translocal connectedness. 224

225

Places and locales 226

Common to most writings about translocality is an analytical focus on place as the 227

setting of grounded movements. This emphasis, however, appears to be driven by 228

diverse motives. While some authors (Freitag and von Oppen 2010) use translocality 229

to challenge notions of spatial boundedness implicit in area studies, others use it to 230

bring the local context back into deterritorialised conceptions of movement and flow 231

(Smith 2011). Translocality appears, then, as a concept serving both ends. It implies 232

a transgressing of locally bounded, fixed understandings of place and at the same 233

time emphasises the importance of places as nodes where flows that transcend 234

spatial scales converge. Referring to Doreen Masseys work on Power Geometries, 235

Brickell and Datta (2011) imagine translocal places as articulated moments in 236

networks of social relations (Massey 1999: 22). A translocal perspective focuses at 237

the same time on both what flows through places and what is in them (Verne 238

2010: 19). The relational nature of place as dynamic (i.e. not static) and constituted 239

through linkages to the outside (i.e. not bounded) (Massey 1991, p. 29) thus 240

appears to be commonly accepted in approaches to translocality, whereas 241

perspectives on the processes of the social and cultural production of place differ in 242

both scope and theoretical approach. 243


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For some authors a translocal perspective provides a vehicle to engage with 244

subjective and phenomenological dimensions of place-making. Situatedness during 245

mobility, according to Brickell and Datta (2011a), is embodied and experienced in 246

places. Places, as Oakes and Schein (2006b, p. 18) put it, are defined by subjective 247

meaning, history, and practices that transcend various spatial scales. While these 248

hermeneutically inspired approaches to translocality revolve around questions of 249

identities, narratives, imaginaries and symbolic representations (Freitag and von 250

Oppen 2010a, Hall and Datta 2010, Lambek 2011, Verne 2012), others expand their 251

conceptual scope to include the material and physical dimensions of place (McKay 252

2003). 253

Hedberg and do Carmo (2012a, p. 3), for example, state that a translocal approach 254

facilitates understanding of the role of mobility in connecting and transforming 255

places. In a similar vein, Greiner and Sakdapolrak (2012) stress the need to focus 256

on how scale-transcending practices materialise and become inscribed into the 257

physical environment, for example in land-use patterns, agricultural practices or built 258

environments. Building on concepts from Structuration Theory, they refer to locales 259

as the settings for social interaction. Processes of time-space distanciation 260

(Giddens 1984, p. 171), through mobility and movements, stretch these locales 261

beyond places, whereby they eventually become trans-locales through the 262

establishment of routine activities. These trans-locales provide the context and 263

setting for action that is extended and increasingly influenced by remote interaction. 264

The production of trans-locales implies a strong temporal dynamic, as they are 265

constructed and dismantled along what Giddens (1984, p. 132) terms time-space 266

trajectories. 267


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To sum up, whatever the specific theoretical conceptions of place or locales may be, 268

they are always conceived of as important arenas of scale-transcending interaction. 269

Translocal approaches, therefore, usually acknowledge a primacy of place (Casey 270

1996) while at the same time they break with essentialising notions of spatially 271

bounded territorial units. 272

273

Empirical application of translocality 274

Translocal approaches are applied to enhance the understanding of various 275

phenomena related to the production and re-production of social spatial 276

configurations, covering such issues as international and internal migration, identity 277

formation, media-use and knowledge transfer as well as local development 278

processes. This list is far from being comprehensive, but it provides an overview of 279

translocalitys range of potential applications. 280

A great majority of studies focus on the multifaceted dimensions of international 281

migration (Peleikis 2003, Velayutham and Wise 2005, Sinatti 2006, Nez-Madrazo 282

2007, Chacko 2011, Leung 2011). Increasingly, however, studies also focus on the 283

highly dynamic rural-urban interactions that constitute translocal fields within national 284

boundaries. In southern Africa, where many internal migration patterns are a product 285

of the political system of Apartheid, these patterns have largely persisted into the 286

post-1990s era. Steinbrink (2009) uses a translocal approach to describe how such 287

patterns of rural-urban interaction impact on the ability of households to cope with 288

and adapt to livelihood risks, and how those patterns are sustained. Greiner (2011) 289

reports from Namibia, a country equally affected by apartheid, about how 290

remittances, part-time pastoralism and other migration-related patterns of 291


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translocality induce processes of socio-economic stratification. In a similar vein, Long 292

(2008), Steel, Winters and Sosa (2011) and McKay (2003) use a translocal approach 293

to elucidate the social impact of rural-urban migration and remittances in Peru, 294

Nicaragua and the Philippines respectively. 295

The analysis of translocal rural spaces, however, is not limited to areas of the Global 296

South. The contributions in a recently published volume on Translocal Ruralism by 297

Hedberg and do Carmo (2012a) are concerned with translocal phenomena in 298

Europe. The editors direct attention to various forms of migration (internal and 299

international) and mobility (e.g. daily commuting) in order to demonstrate that 300

geographically peripheral regions of Europe are engaged in a constant process of 301

functional reconfiguration. Here, translocal approaches are applied to challenge 302

notions of stagnation and isolation often associated with rural spaces (Do Carmo and 303

Santos 2012, Guran-Nica and Sofer 2012, Papadopoulos 2012, Rau 2012). 304

Translocal social spaces are, however, not only produced by refugees (Stenbacka 305

2012) and (labour) migrants (Papadopoulos 2012), but also by musicians (Ma 2002), 306

communities of ballroom dancers (Marion 2005) and amateur football players 307

(Steinbrink 2010), amongst others. 308

The volume Translocal Geographies. Spaces, Places and Connections edited by 309

Brickell and Datta (2011a) uses scale as the main structuring dimension to illustrate 310

the multiplicity of translocal affiliations. The contributions present experiences of 311

multi-scalar and multi-sited translocal geographies at the scale of home and family 312

(Brickell 2011, Tan and Yeoh 2011, Hatfield 2011) and neighbourhoods (Centner 313

2011, Datta 2011, Wise 2011) as well as that of the city (Chako 2011, Christou 2011, 314

Page 2011). As Brickell and Datta (2001a, p. 19-20) summarise, the volume 315

highlights how the local and local-to-local connections exist across a variety of scales 316


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and points to the importance of considering the material and embodied practices of 317

migrants for gaining an understanding of translocality. 318

Another area of focus of translocal research is that of identity in the context of 319

intensifying mobility (de Lima 2012, Stenbacka 2012). Using Cameroon and 320

Tanzania as examples, Page (2011) shows how globally operating home-town 321

associations become differentially enmeshed with localised identity politics in the 322

migrant sending areas. The volume Translocal China, edited by Oakes and Schein 323

(2006b), explicitly addresses such multifaceted questions of identity against the 324

background of contemporary China. They point out that people and institutions have 325

become translocal in the recent era of reform and rapid socio-economic 326

transformation. While the subject of the movement of people is often taken up in 327

addressing questions of identity (Chongyi and Changzhi 2006, Schein 2006, Sun 328

2006, Greiner 2010), some authors apply a translocal approach to expand the focus 329

beyond the topic of migration. 330

As such, translocality is also applied to study the use of media and the circulation of 331

knowledge and ideas in globally operating networks. Focusing on the spatial 332

organisation of high-tech innovation in Germany, Lange and Bttner (2010), use a 333

translocal approach to map out the possibilities for and restrictions on translocal 334

knowledge-transfers which result in differential spatial knowledge formations. The 335

flow of information, ideas and opinions through the internet, and its influence on 336

identity formation, is taken up by Gan (2006), who shows how young mothers in 337

China use online parenting forums to construct and negotiate their new identities as 338

mothers alongside their identities as career women. The role of the internet in 339

producing translocal relations and imageries is also reflected by Uimonens (2009) 340

study on art college students in Tanzania. The changing patterns of translocal 341


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communication facilitated by mobile phones, and their impact on political practices 342

(protests and riots), is illustrated in a case study by Tenhunen (2011) from West 343

Bengal. Analysing poems as a symbolic and material expression of translocality, 344

Suns (2010) study on migrant workers in Chinas industrial south reveals how 345

movements by this group are marked by a sense of alienation, displacement and 346

disenchantment. The exchange of symbol and images among transnationally 347

operating South Asian Muslim groups is described by Reetz (2010). He employs a 348

translocal perspective to illustrate the production of alternate globalities that position 349

themselves against Western-dominated and economy-centred activities. 350

Another area of investigation explores the implications of translocality for 351

development (Helvoirt 2011, Noorloos 2011). In the article Translocal Development, 352

Development Corridors and Development Chains by Zoomers and Westen (2011), in 353

a special issue of the International Development Planning Review, translocality is 354

applied to redefine notions of locally bounded development. The contributions in the 355

Review highlight how local-to-local connectedness produces both opportunities for 356

and constraints upon people in their struggle for better livelihoods. The possibilites 357

available for and difficulties encountered by development cooperation below the level 358

of the state, such as formalised municipal partnerships (Bontenbal and Lindert 2011) 359

or development projects of migrants associations (Grillo and Riccio 2004, Page and 360

Mercer 2012), are addressed by several authors from a translocal perspective. 361

Kaags (2011) case study from Chad, for example, examines the work of Islamic 362

NGOs from the Arab world in Africa. While rather limited in financial volume and 363

economic impact, the study highlights the nevertheless important political and moral 364

implications that result from the NGOs work in connecting the umma (Islamic 365

community). Pointing to the fact that development is often related to practices of 366


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accumulation through extraction, expulsion and marginalisation of local populations, 367

authors such as Banerjee (2011) and McFarlane (2009) highlight the emancipatory 368

potential of translocality. The exchange of ideas, knowledge, practices, materials and 369

resources across places, they argue, is a resource that enables local social 370

movements to resist or challenge development paths or change them in their favour. 371

Similarly, using a case study from inhabitants of a squatter settlement in Lisbon, 372

Portugal Horta (2002) illustrates how translocal forms of migrants grassroots 373

organizations have become crucial in their practices of collective mobilization to 374

negotiate their interests. 375

376

Conclusion: Translocalism an approach in its own right 377

Translocality has been applied as a way to comprehend the tension between mobility 378

and locality and to enhance understanding of this relationship, which characterises 379

an increasing number of socio-spatial dynamics. The approach builds on insights 380

from the longer-established research tradition of transnationalism, but seeks to 381

overcome the latters limited focus on the nation state. This analytical expansion, we 382

have argued, was both necessary and overdue. Writings on translocality direct 383

attention to various forms of mobility beyond the movement of people. Building on a 384

relational notion of place, these writings place a strong emphasis on the micro level 385

and local-to-local dynamics to explain socio-spatial phenomena. 386

Translocal approaches exhibit several commonalities with research on grounded 387

transnationalism. Although many authors do not differentiate tranlocalism from 388

transnationalism, let alone designate it as an analytical concept in its own right, we 389

nevertheless consider that the approach warrants consideration as an emerging 390


17

research concept. Based on our review of existing concepts and empirical 391

applications, we argue that translocality has the potential to address important issues 392

in socio-spatial research. We conclude this review by outlining some of these areas. 393

Firstly, translocality can serve as a fruitful starting point from which to challenge 394

dichotomous geographical conceptions (Agnew 2005), such as space and place, 395

rural and urban, core and periphery. 396

Secondly, the actor-oriented focus on the social production of translocality enhances 397

a more explicit discussion of the temporal dynamics, path dependencies and time-398

space interconnections of socio-spatial dynamics. The concept thereby offers a more 399

nuanced perspective on how these processes are socially differentiated, and is 400

sensitive to the role of power in relation to flows and movements (Massey 1991, p. 401

25f). 402

Thirdly, the shift away from a primary concern with the nation state directs attention 403

to alternative historiographies of globalization. 404

Fourthly, translocality emphasises significant spatial scales beyond the national 405

entities and their specific non-hierarchic interactions and configurations. In particular, 406

it highlights the importance of networked places, which are, in Doreen Masseys 407

words (1991: 28), constructed on a far larger scale than what we happen to define 408

for that moment as place. 409

Fifthly, translocality facilitates research on mobilities beyond human migration. By 410

addressing flows and circulations of ideas, symbols, knowledge, etc., it offers a 411

stimulating perspective from which to engage with subjects such as the impact of a 412

globalising world on non-migrants, and the co-production of connectedness by 413

mobile and immobile populations. 414


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Finally, by placing an explicit emphasis on local conditions, translocality draws 415

attention to transformations of the physical and natural environment (e.g. farming 416

systems, urban areas, riparian zones). In so doing, translocal research can engage in 417

the discussion on global environmental change and strengthen the importance of the 418

mobility of people, concepts and resources within the debate. To conclude, this 419

review demonstrates that translocality is a dynamic and emerging field of research 420

which is both a suitable and a timely means by which to address socio-spatial 421

dynamics in an increasingly mobile world. 422


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