Monday, January 22, 2007

[IWS] IILS: TRANSSTATE SOCIAL SPACES & DEVELOPMENT: Exploring the Changing Balance between Communities, States and Markets [2007]

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016
-------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS) at the ILO
Decent Work Research Programme
Discussion Paper 169/2007

Transstate Social Spaces and Development: Exploring the Changing Balance between Communities, States and Markets
by Thomas Faist
        
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inst/download/dp16907.pdf
[full-text, 34 pages]

Abstract
The main question addressed is how transstate groups and associations interact with states
and markets in migrant-induced flows of financial remittances, knowledge, political ideas and
interests across state borders. First, how has academic and policy thinking on development cast
the role of transstate social groups and non-state organizations? Second, in what ways are the
activities of transstate cliques, groups and organizations, which embody some of the community
principles, complementary or incompatible with those of other institutions functioning according
to the logics of states and markets? The questions raised relate to the more general question of
the shifting balance of community, state and market under conditions commonly called
globalization. The argument put forward in this analysis is that the new enthusiasm towards the
crucial role of transstate communities and migrant organizations is an effort to fuse principles of
“community” with those of the global “market”. Yet there are both compatibilities and
incompatibilities of the community and the market principles. Moreover, the principles of
transstate “community” and the national “state” may clash in the case of those who have chosen
the exit option and also exert voice in the countries and localities of origin, because they partake
in decision-making but are not affected by the consequences of these decisions. The first part of
the analysis outlines the ideational shift to “community” as reference category for development
thinking on the part of international organizations over the past decades. The second part
discusses if and how migrant organizations and groups have been complementary or
incompatible with state and market principles, using the examples of small kinship groups,
village associations, networks of businesspersons, epistemic communities, and diasporas. The
third part touches on the implications for further research and argues that the concept of
transstate social spaces, that is, spaces “in between” the local and the global, but also between
states, can be used as an instrument to shed light on the dilemmas of border-crossing democracy
and citizenship.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................................1
The conceptual evolution of the role of community in development ..............................................................5
Community vis-à-vis market and state: complementarities and incompatibilities ..........................................7
Financial capital as remittances: small kinship groups.............................................................................7
Financial capital as investments: village associations ..............................................................................9
Financial capital as investments: networks of businesspersons..............................................................10
Knowledge: epistemic communities.......................................................................................................12
Political ideas and interests: ethno-national communities ......................................................................15
Outlook: transstate social spaces and states...................................................................................................16
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................19

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 255-2703                
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
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