Mobilities, migration, and diasporas- Introduction

Abstract

The Routledge Handbook of Transregional Studies brings together the various fields within which transregional phenomena are scientifically observed and analysed. This handbook presents the theoretical and methodological potential of such studies for the advancement of the conceptualization of global and area-bound developments.

Following three decades of intense debate about globalization and transnationalism, it has become clear that border-crossing connections and interactions between societies are highly important, yet not all extend beyond the borders of nation-states or are of truly world-wide reach. The product of extensive international and interdisciplinary cooperation, this handbook is divided into ten sections that introduce the wide variety of topics within transregional studies, including Colonialism and Post-Colonial Studies, Spatial Formats, International Organizations, Religions and Religious Movements, and Transregional Studies and Narratives of Globalization. Recognizing that transregional studies asks about the space-making and space-formatting character of connections as well as the empirical status of such connections under the global condition, the volume reaches beyond the typical confines of area and regional studies to consider how areas are transcended and transformed more widely.

Combining case studies with both theoretical and methodological considerations, The Routledge Handbook of Transregional Studies provides the first overview of the currently flourishing field of transregional studies and is the ideal volume for students and scholars of this diverse subject and its related fields.

Biographical Note

Sarah Ruth Sippel (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Sarah Ruth Sippel is a lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and a Principal Investigator at the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1199. Her research interests concern the complex nature of the global agri-food system, particularly questions in relation to food security, the financialization of agriculture and food, and the alternatives that are being developed to the current agri-food system. All these issues raise important questions in relation to politics, ethics, and social justice, which motivate her research. As a human geographer with a background in Middle Eastern Studies and Philosophy, Sarah investigates social phenomena from an interdisciplinary and transregional perspective. She intensively worked on the interlinkages between export agriculture, rural livelihood security, and labour migration in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. Her current research addresses the diverse (re)imaginations of land in Australia.

Steffi Marung (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University, Germany)

Steffi Marung gained a PhD in global studies from Leipzig University with a study on shifting border regimes of the expanding European Union since 1990. Prior to earning her PhD, she had studied political science and German literature in Halle, Berlin, and Prague. From there she further developed her interest in processes of (re-)spatialization into an ongoing book project on the transnational history of Soviet African studies during the Cold War. In the framework of the international collaborative project “Socialism Goes Global”, she has extended this research towards more general questions of the geographies of East-South encounters during the Cold War. Teaching global history courses at the Global and European Studies Institute at Leipzig University and being involved in further book projects (one on the transnational history of East Central Europe since the nineteenth century, another one on the global history of area studies, and a third one on transregional studies), she contributes to the SFB’s programme with research on the historiographical background of and multiple disciplinary theoretical foundations for the investigation of spatial formats and spatial orders. To this end, she endeavours to facilitate and promote joint cross-project discussions and the formation of a common theoretical language and framework.