Cultural Geography

undergirding a system that infects and is infected

by every other system in anunequalexchange.

Without this, the power relations evident in every

facet of transnational contact – between states,

institutions and people – become lost. And with-

out an understanding of power relations, one that

transcends purely local knowledges, the possibil-

ity of political and economic resistance is greatly

diminished.

A second area in which the limits of the limi-

nal emerge is in the discussion of cultural mobility.

In numerous celebratory representations of ‘new’

transnational cultures and hybrid subject posi-

tions, the powerfully oppressive socio-economic

forces underlying the changes are neglected, as

are many of the people caught within them. As

bell hooks (1992) has noted of Clifford’s some-

what playful evocation of travel and ‘hotel

lobby’ culture, the actual, terrorizing experience

of border crossings for many people of colour is

effectively ignored. On-the-ground experiences

are relegated to a secondary position – if included

at all – in the general rush to proclaim the bene-

ficial potential of hybrid forms, ‘third’ spaces,

and state-sponsored drives toward increasing

cultural diversity and mutual tolerance. In an era

of global capitalism, the heralding of subject

positions ‘at the margins’ too often neglects the

actual marginalization of subjects. And positive

readings of the forces of deterritorialization inad-

equately address ‘the powerful forces of oppres-

sion unleashed by them’ (Visweswaran, 1994:

109).

A different set of problems arises when

theorists herald hybridity precisely because they

believe it to be the only space of resistance left to

the marginalized – particularly those marginal-

ized by the exclusionary forces of nationalism.

According to scholars like Bhabha (1994), sub-

jects located ‘in between’ nations or subject posi-

tions are best positioned to resist hegemonic

narratives of race or nation; it is from a place at

the margins that substantial interventions in the

ongoing production of the nation can be

launched. Although the potential for resistance is

clear, the celebratory theoretical assumption of a

progressive politics of intervention is not always

borne out in empirical transnational studies. For

example, research on contemporary Chinese

businessmen has shown that various kinds of dias-

poric, deterritorialized and hybrid subject positions

have been used strategically for economicgain. In

other words, strategic self-fashioning in liminal

and partial sites can be used for the purposes

of capital accumulation quite as effectively as

for the purposes of intervention in hegemonic

narratives of race and nation (Mitchell, 1997b;

see also Ong, 1993; 1999).

It is this problem of a frequent disregard for

grounded empirical work that limits many episte-

mological inquiries into transnational processes.

Theorizing global processes with new conceptual

tools enables alternatives to the ‘globalization-

from-above’ model. But without ‘literal’ empiri-

cal data related to the actual movements of things

and people across space, theories of anti-

essentialism, mobility, plurality and hybridity can

quickly devolve into terms emptied of any poten-

tial political efficacy. Through geographically

informed research and theoretically nuanced

understandings of difference and alterity, the

difficult questions related to borders and identi-

ties will be forced to the surface, even if they

remain partially unanswered and unanswerable.

TRANSNATIONAL RESEARCH IN

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

The practices and meaning of location, especially

the reconstruction of place in the contemporary

period of ‘fast’ capital, are common themes in

cultural geography. In what way is the ‘condition

of transnationality’ affecting the culture of loca-

tion and the consciousness of people on the

move, as well as those unable or unwilling to

move? What are the transnational practices and

imaginings that have been galvanized by global

shifts (Ong, 1999)? How does the extension of

‘multiple ties and interactions’ (Vertovec, 1999)

across borders impact on the cultural geographies

of individuals and of nations?

In recent years, numerous scholars have

begun to examine the socio-spatial dynamics of

cross-border economies and lives. Peter Jackson

and Phil Crang (2000), for example, trace the

paths of commodity flows and their cultural

implications. They are interested in the ways

that notions of commerce and the traffic in

things can be conceptualized in relation to

transnational theory. For them, a focus on com-

modity culture can provide a significant lens

with which to examine a multitude of locations

and movements between specific sites rather

than the more familiar movements of migrants

back and forth across the globe. Aiming to help

‘ground’ transnational discourse yet avoid fixing

it in a simplistic way, they examine the ‘refigur-

ing of the spaces of culture’ through the links

between the multiple sites of commodity

consumption and production.

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