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Transnationalism

Evidence of how globally connected we are and at the same time of how
constrained we are by state oversight and deceit, our transnational era is perhaps
best described as a paradox. Steve Vertovec insightfully describes the paradox of
contemporary transnationalism as follows: it is a condition wherein global
relationships are ubiquitous (in economic, political, personal, and cultural domains)
and take place in a planet spanning . Virtual arena in spite of the fortification of
borders and regulatory national narratives. Indeed, the condition of the
transnational is evident in the terms early uses. Randolphe Bourne was among the
early adopters of the term transnational when he wrote an article titled Transnational America for the July 1916 issue of Atlantic Monthly. This nearly hundred
year old essay, in its discussion of the power of the migrant to reroute the national
imaginary into a cosmopolitan future, makes a strong claim for the term
transnational to refer to people on the move. The transnational person, in Burnes
articulation is one who is characterized by having several physical and imaginative
homes.
In spite of how long the term has been circulating-or perhaps because of the time
span transnationalism remains a rather open term; at the same time, it has
become radically overdetermined.

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