Development, the state, and transnational political connections: state and subject formations in Latin America

Abstract

Focusing on the processes of making and sustaining transnational political ties between actors, international actors and states, this paper reviews recent work from a number of disciplines on globalization and politics, and outlines an agenda for future research. Rather than seeing transnational political linkages merely as forerunners to the loss of local sovereignty, the paper argues for a wider conceptualization of transnational connections, embedded within processes of state formation in Latin America. Using a variety of examples, it is argued that transnational networks are associated with a wide range of meanings and a variety of responses by diverse actors. Drawing on recent work in political science, poststructuralism and anthropology, it is suggested that geographical concepts -related to scale, process and networks -offer a means through which to analyse and 'map out' these transnational political processes.

Locating Globalization: Feminist (Re)readings of the Subjects and Spaces of Globalization

“…With others (Sparke and Lawson 2001;Agnew 1999; Sassen noted that globalization has unbundled sovereignty with the rise of governance without government in the supranational sphere; this unbundling of sovereignty has complex effects with key implications for gender. With globalization and the reworking of sovereignty, the state is no longer the exclusive representative of its population in the international arena; nongovernmental sectors and transnational networks of activists-including women's groups and feminist organizations-are also active players now (Escobar 2001;Radcliffe 2001;Sassen 1998). On the other hand, this reworking of sovereignty has challenged a historically masculinist framing of sovereignty at the nation-state scale.…”

Village politics, culture and community-driven development: insights from Indonesia

“…'Culture' can seem an all too slippery, interpretative and potentially conservative concept for those concerned with nitty-gritty questions of institutional design and fiscal transfers -and perhaps also for those who trace their intellectual roots to political economy and peasant studies. Meanwhile, others more attuned to questions of culture may have steered clear of engaging in 'culture and development' discussions because of the mechanistic and simplistic ways in which culture is often treated as a 'resource', a store of knowledge, techniques and practices that can be mobilized in the pursuit of externally defined development goals (Radcliffe, 2001; see also Escobar, 1991). Indeed, the chapter on community-driven development for the World Bank's Poverty reduction strategy sourcebook refers to culture as a potential source of skills, as ethnicity and as valuesnot as a realm of contention (Dongier et al, 2002).…”

New state-theoretic approaches to asylum and refugee geographies

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