Transnational spaces and everyday lives

Abstract

This paper discusses some of the limitations of the global city hypothesis, in particular its economistic tendencies, the suppression of political and cultural domains, and the underdevelopment of human agency and everyday life. It tries to establish more fully the identities of global subjects. Examining two sets of global actors, transnational businessmen and cosmopolitan professionals, it argues that the expansive reach and mastery imputed to global subjects, their flight from the particular and the partisan, their dominance and freedom from vulnerability, are far from complete. The separation of the global and the local and the ascription of mobility and universalism to the global and stasis and parochialism to the local is an oversimplification, for an optic of transnational global spaces should not conceal the intersecting reality of circumscribed everyday lives.key words global city global-local transnationalism cosmopolitanism hybridity immigrants gentrification

Social Mobility via academic mobility: reconfigurations in class and gender identities among Asian scholars in the global north

“…Such over-generalised 'global talk' has, however, also invited critique. David Ley (2004), for instance, has convincingly argued against the global vs. local dichotomy to conclude that 'cosmopolitanism itself is always situated, always imbued with partiality and vulnerability' (162).…”

“…Though there are plenty of evidences to illustrate the power of this elite transnational higher education system, one should be cautioned to assume its smooth functioning (cf. Ley 2004;Waters 2006b). …”

Place Belonging in a Mobile World. A Case Study of Migrant Professionals

“…The fi rst and dominant approach analyses migrant professionals in the context of world cities, global connectivity, fl ows, and networks [Sassen 1996;Castells 2000]. In general, these analyses focus on the macro-level restructuring of the economy and the social sphere on a global scale and portray migrant professionals as belonging to a global space of fl ows, networks, and interactions, weakly embedded in territorial place [Ley 2004;Pawlak 2015]. It is argued that 'the global capitalist class members and their transnational life style' belong to a 'global realm in which commodities, peoples and ideas travel almost freely' [Nowicka 2012: 3-4].…”

Managing Surveillance? The Impact of Biometric Residence Permits on UK Migrants

“…By concentrating on these groups of highly skilled and educated people, we wish to stress the need to consider how immigration policies and documents such as the BRP impact upon individuals often perceived to be highly mobile. Whilst these groups have been the subject of previous scholarly work (Beaverstock 2005;Koser and Salt 1997;Ley 2004Ley , 2010, we argue that there is a need to examine some assumptions made about skilled migrants, in particular, the assertion that they find it easier to make choices and changes in their lives (Favell et al 2009;Hawthorne 2008;Koser and Salt 1997). In comparison to lowskilled migrants and asylum-seekers, educated HE students and staff may be better placed to deal with immigration policy requirements and find it easier to enter, work and/or study in the UK.…”