Transnational Lives in China ― Expatriates in a Globalizing City

Increasing numbers of people from the developed West are deciding to live and work in the rapidly developing economies of Asia. Transnational Lives in China: Expatriates in a Globalizing City is one of the first book length studies of a contemporary community of expatriates living in China.

The author weaves thick ethnographic data with classical and contemporary sociological theory to explore what is happening to notions of identity and belonging for skilled transnational workers as they move through urban environments perceived as very different from their homes. This book follows the journeys of people from Western nations living in a second-tier Chinese city and examines how status, gender, race and nationality are constructed around moral discourses of 'home'.

Transnational Lives engages with the sociology of emotions and provides an innovative approach to globalization studies. This book will appeal to students and academics within sociology, social anthropology, and human geography.