Transnational Networks.
Contributions to the history of "Globalization"
International conference, Vienna: November 16th to 18th, 2007
Conceptual outline
Transnational Networks are currently one of the main topics of globalisation
studies. They are analysed as a main vector of the globalisation of knowledge,
norms, attitudes, cultural practices and lifestyles. Eventually, current
global development in economy, society and politics brings this topic into
the focus of research. Thus, analysts of those evolutions we characterise
as "globalisation" have brought fluctuating networks as form of
organisation of a dynamic "space of flows" (Manuel Castells) into
discussion.
Research on transnational networks is a necessarily transdisciplinary enterprise.
A sociological, historical, approach can as well be integrated as a perspective
from economic and political science and from globalisation studies.
Networks are more informal, more fluid, less consolidated than organisations.
Times of expansion of a deregulated global economy make non-governmental
organisations prosper. Transnational networks communicate with this world
of non-governmental organisations, but they are not identical with them.
Structured organisations may function as visible nodal points of informal
networks. The examination of networks focusses our view on interactions
between structures (organisations) and individuals under the condition of
spatial distance. It is therefore not surprising that the concept of "networks"
became topical in the debates on "globalisation" where "de-spatialisation",
transcending of borders and world-wide networking are tantamount.
The concept "transnational" is to express, in differentiation
to the notions: international, or: multinational, a new quality of entanglement
engendering global networks and organisations transcending the space of
the nation state. Such networks and organisations cannot usefully be analyzed
in the framework of nation states because they are situated beyond such
borders.
It is an aim of the conference to focus the attention on forms of transnational networks in the history of "globalisation". Time focus should be on the 20th century. Which forms of transnational networks emerged and what was their contribution to the world-wide spread ("globalisation") of political attitudes, practices, lifestyles, forms of action and ways of thinking? Which epistemic networks emerged? Which forms of links between individuals and organisations, which personal and organizational nodal points can be observed? How did communication in those transnational networks function? How is knowledge, how are norms and standards generated and circulated, how are thus influence and power disseminated?
Networks may be constituted by the circulation of people and networks may
be constituted by the circulation of ideas, concepts, beliefs, attitudes,
without the necessity that people who make them circulate, move themselves
in space.
This simple distinction may serve to establish a basic
structure of the conference.
Networks that move people or, the other way round, come into being by the
circulation of people, shall be distinguished from networks that move ideas,
concepts, beliefs, attitudes, or come into being by the circulation of such
ideas, concepts, beliefs and attitudes.
An alternative structuring could follow a differentiation
of cultural spheres and of the distribution of power.
The concept "transnational" should not veil that in most
cases networks with such a claim can nevertheless be fixed to certain spaces.
Transnational networks also have a center and a periphery. The rapid increase
of transnationally operating non-state networks and "non-governmental
organisations" is corresponding with the "globalisation"
of an economy eluding state regulation. The centers of those networks and
organisations operating in a transnational identity are situated in the
centers of global power, in the centers of the world economy. Values, ideas
and practices spread by them are in principle compatible with values, ideas
and practices in those areas, though they may not (yet) be majoritarian.
The analysts of "transnational" trends, many of them themselves
endowed with a transnational identity, are equally situated there as well
as their institutes and their sponsors. Thus, the history of networks which
are radically "alternative", because substantially different in
culture, as a rule is written in a perspective from these centers of global
power. The conference shall try to get such "radically alternative"
networks in their focus whose centers are/were not identical with centers
of global power.
A third structuring effort could distinguish types
of networks of Labour following their forms of organisation and of action:
• Networks in connection with international organisations:
— the world of multilateral organizations as a frame of action for
transnational elites and as a space for the commissioning and implementation
of expertise
— Churches and church-like organizations: mission-orders and evangelical
networks
• Advocacy networks emanating from transnational Lobby-groups as advocates
of certain issues, in a wide range from NGOs like Attac, Global, international
Jewish organizations to policy-orientated think tanks.
• Transnational epistemic networks as organisators of knowledge-transfer
- networks of researchers, endowments, foundations, think tanks.
• Consultancy networks - Political PR-consultants Spin doctors, Consultants
in International Development, experts in global norms and morality defining
and certifying rules of correct conduct, of corporate social responsibility,
etc.
• Networks of transnationally conceived social movements like the
different currents of the historical Labour movement from loose associations
like the 2nd International to such efforts to stear a "World Party"
as the Comintern, or the contemporary "Anti"- or "Alter-Globalisation
movement".
• Migration networks of all sorts of temporary and permanent expatriates
and diasporas: from networks of migrating workers, political migration as
a form of network communicating political concepts and lifestyles, to transnationally
circulating elites.
• Networks of TNCs