Transnationalism

While Vertovec (director, Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany) devotes the opening chapter to exploring the range of social scientific concepts concerning transnationalism, the true focus of this volume of the "Key Ideas" series is on migrant transnationalism. He describes how migrant transnationalism is fostered by long-distance, cross-border connections, especially the advent of cheap telephone calls. He then explores political transformations produced by migrant transnationalism, including changing models of the nation-state, and economic transformations resulting from new forms of trade and entrepreneurship and from flows of remittances. He also considers the ways that migrant transnationalism has been transformational in the religious sphere. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Steven Vertovec is Director of the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany. He is co-editor of the journal Global Networks and editor of the Routledge book series 'Transnationalism'.