CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES OF TRANSNATIONALITY 75cultural blending of various kinds, invoking a
form of syncreticism in art or creolization in rela-
tion to identity (Hannerz, 1996; Vertovec, 1999).
Often these terms are used as textual markers,
abstracted away from the material relations of a
particular time and place. In response to this
ahistorical and ageographical type of theorizing,
most Marxist geographers, and others interested
in both transnational concepts and political eco-
nomy, have called for a more grounded theory,
especially with reference to economic processes
(Jackson and Crang, 2000; Mitchell, 1997a;
Nonini and Ong, 1997).
In earlier work, following the rapid rise in
popularity of the term ‘postmodernism’, for
example, the pointed reference to the necessity of
theorizing epistemological concepts alongside
economic shifts was clearly the intent behind the
title of Harvey’s influential book The Condition
of Postmodernity(1989). In direct response to
the epistemological celebrations of the end of
metanarratives and the death of the individual
subject found in Lyotard’s The Postmodern Con-
dition(1984), Harvey set out to show the reader
that many of these reputedly liberatory positions
were connected to an increasingly polarizing and
debilitating form of capitalism. In this regard,
terms such as the ‘condition of transnationality’
or ‘transnationalization’ are perhaps more apro-
pos of describing the changing interactions, sub-
jectivities and narratives that are directly related
to specific material processes, particularly the
global restructuring of the economy under late
capitalism.
In the last three decades a number of forces
have constellated to create a highly integrated
and interdependent international system. The
on-going process in which this interdependency
is produced and maintained is broadly referred
to as ‘globalization’, a term with such a large
tent-like structure that many things have crept
to shelter under it.^1 Transnational research in
geography is linked with globalization studies
through a shared focus on changes in the sys-
tems of world governance, including the prolif-
eration of regional and cross-border trade
agreements and pacts, the end of the Cold War
and the beginning of a ‘new world order’, and
the ongoing impacts of neocolonialism and
neoliberalism. They are also linked through the
emphasis on shifts in the nature of capitalism as
a global socio-economic system, especially the
changing geographies of production, the chang-
ing flows of capital and labour, the rise of new
kinds of networks and commodity flows, and
the increasing polarization of wealth on bothmacro (geographic) and micro (household)
scales.
A key feature of contemporary capitalism is a
far greater globality and flexibility in regimes
of accumulation (Harvey, 1989). These include
the deterritorialization of finance (Corbridge
et al., 1994; Roberts, 1994), the geographical
fragmentation of production systems (Dicken,
1992) and the strategic elasticity of institutions
(Herod et al., 1998). This flexibility is also mani-
fested in the increasing movements of people in
extended social fields across borders, and in the
consciousness, socio-cultural expressions and
identity formation of both these transnational
migrants and those who have remained locally
based (Rouse, 1991; Silvey and Lawson, 1999).
As Sassen (1988) showed over a decade ago, the
growing flexibility of capital and the flows of
people are intricately interlinked. Thus geo-
graphers interested in the social formations of
transnationalism, including cultural expressions
of in-betweenness, or disruptions of national
narratives, must necessarily examine the broad
global economic context in which these trans-
national processes are occurring.
For example, in the mid 1980s a new category
of immigration, called the Business Immigration
Programme, was initiated by the Canadian
government in order to attract wealthy investors
and entrepreneurs to settle and invest in Canada.
The programme was greatly expanded following
a recession in 1981–2, and was explicitly
designed as a method of kick-starting the econ-
omy through the influx of capital and people
with business expertise, and also through the
expansion of ties with the booming Asia–Pacific
region. The programme was one of numerous
measures introduced by the federal government
in the 1980s that were part of a broad neoliberal
strategy of easing the national and international
circulation of capital and reducing the role of
government in many sectors of the economy. The
main targets of the programme were Hong Kong
Chinese business people who were leaving the
colony as a result of its impending transfer to
control by the People’s Republic of China in- Hong Kong led as the primary source of
immigrants within this programme for a number
of years.
Being cognizant of this global and national
economic context is crucial for understanding the
types of cultural disputes and political struggles
that occurred in Canada following the rapid
influx of so many wealthy immigrants from
Hong Kong. In my own research, which centred
on the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, I
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