two-way process: the global restructuring of
capitalism conditions the production and appli-
cation of new information technologies, and the
new technologies enable this kind of restructur-
ing to occur. In these types of arguments, the
new technologies are given causal weight and
are seen to influence not just an acceleration of
international linkages, but the ways in which
society itself is structured. The local impact of
the new information processes is, for Castells,
immense, as an abstracted ‘space of flows’
begins to dominate more local, place-based
processes and understandings.
Research that connects transnational cultural
geographies with economic processes, particu-
larly those focusing on the rise of the network
society and the shift to regimes of flexible accu-
mulation, is imperative in order to understand the
structural factors in how globalization works.
For example, in the past, the experience of inter-
national migration for a majority of migrants
involved a permanent move from one nation-
state to another. Although communication and
even periodic visits might have continued between
the state of origin and that of the migrant’s desti-
nation, the time, expense and difficulties associ-
ated with these international connections made
them relatively infrequent. But in the contempo-
rary period of rapid and inexpensive jet flights,
satellite television, internet connections, interna-
tional banking and cheap and direct telephone
lines, the ability to remain linked on a semi-
permanent and nearly instantaneous basis with
two or more places became not just possible but
relatively easy.
This shift has had remarkable implications for
both economic networking and cultural meaning.
Migrants are likely to retain important relation-
ships binationally and to orchestrate economic,
political and social decisions via complex
networks across space. Cultural meanings as
well as financial remittances flow along these
newly forming networks, facilitated by the new
telecommunications technologies. As people
move and communicate in new kinds of ways
this, in turn, affects the flow of money and credit
and also the movement and manipulation of
commodities. (Demand for certain kinds of food-
stuffs from countries of origin, for example, has
created new markets for products and services.)
Transnational migrants are important agents of
economic transformation in themselves, and
their activities and practices in numerous spheres
have had a major economic impact on local,
regional and global arenas. Thus, how globaliza-
tion operates in terms of the expansion anddiffusion of capitalism is intricately connected
with the social formations and cultural identities
of these transnational labourers and business
people on the move.
Until recently, however, much of contempo-
rary research on globalization has emphasized a
kind of transnationalization ‘from above’, and
neglected the contextual nature of these economic
and cultural interlinkages. For example, research
that focused on increasing globalization related
just to the general expansion of capitalism world-
wide often relied on an extremely narrow and
homogeneous vision of the workings of capital-
ism. Capitalism, money and information were
assumed as standards that were self-referencing
and all-encompassing. The origins of these
processes receded from view, and their power
and ability to expand and diffuse took on the
characteristic of the self-evident.
Transnational theory which foregrounds post-
colonial and poststructuralist frameworks seeks
to question the limits of ahistorical and homo-
genizing narratives such as these, and enables
new kinds of questions concerning so-called
global processes. In studies of capitalist formation,
for example, contemporary research focuses on
the specific configurations of differing economic
systems within their own geographical and
historical contexts. Thus, instead of negatively
framed questions such as the classic query in
sociology, ‘why did capitalism not develop in
China?’, the organization of Chinese commerce
must be explained in its own terms (Hamilton,
1985: 65). In conceptualizations of this type,
wherein the historical dynamics of culture and
systems of organizational authority are given sub-
stantial theoretical weight, singular visions of the
nature of capitalism and/or of the ‘natural’ path of
capitalist development are effectively avoided.
Economic and socio-cultural activity can then be
viewed as mutually interactive, as intertwined
rather than causal (Mitchell, 1995: 365).
Knowledge of local economic variation moves
beyond a cultural ‘embeddedness’ approach to
investigations of alternative originations and
evolutions. What constitutes capitalism as a
socio-economic system varies greatly by time
and place and affects how capitalist practices are
both implemented and understood. Furthermore,
through hegemonic struggles over capitalist
meanings and practices, local economic regimes
provide the seeds of future variation for global
economic change. Blim (1996: 88), for example,
has discussed the highly heterogeneous forms of
property ownership and the varied understand-
ings of private and collective property rights inCULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES OF TRANSNATIONALITY 773029-ch03.qxd 03-10-02 4:50 PM Page 77