Michael Peter Smith

Transnational urbanism revisited

This article revisits the research optic proposed in Transnational Urbanism to take stock of the field. Social relations ‘from the middle’ are conceived in two distinct ways in the field. Transnationalism ‘from in-between’ refers to actors who mediate between transnational actors ‘from above’ and ‘from below’. ‘Middling transnationalism’ refers to the transnational practices of middle-class social actors. Both are useful and potentially complementary. Research on transnational urbanism is aware of the socially situated subjectivity of human agents while also providing a way to study spatially distanciated social relations. Research has begun to attend to the emplacement of mobile subjects and the embodiment of their everyday practices and mobilities. Future studies need to attend to the power-knowledge venues by which states, institutional channels and other actors broker mobile subjects’ cross-border interconnectivity.

Transnationalism, the State, and the Extraterritorial Citizen

Offering a political optic on transnationalism, this article shows how the Partido Acción Nacional from Guanajuato, Mexico, seeks to reconstitute Guanajuatense transnational migrants as clients and funders of state policies, as political subjects with “dual loyalty” but limited political autonomy. To co-opt migrants into development projects designed bythe state but financed bythe migrants, partyelites reconfigure the meanings of “migrant,” “region,” and “citizen.” This is contested by migrant leaders whose views of extraterritorial citizenship, translocal community, and partyloy alty differ from views of the partyelites. The migrants see the state as diverting their energies from true civil societyand local development initiatives across borders.

Use of a chronic prefemoral lymphatic fistula for monitoring systemic capillary integrity in unanesthetized sheep

Abstract Alterations in fluid and protein flux across the soft tissue capillary resulting in edema formation is a common occurrence in the critically ill patient. The pathophysiology and therapeutic modalities for treating edema are poorly defined in large part due to the difficulty of monitoring capillary integrity. We have described a preparation using lymph flow (Q L ) from the prefemoral efferent lymphatic in sheep, which we have found to accurately reflect changes in capillary fluid and protein flux. The lymph fistula is easy to prepare and chronic studies can be performed in the unanesthetized state. A lung lymph fistula can be formed in the same animal which allows for the comparison of the pulmonary and systemic capillary effects of injury. We have found that prefemoral Q L responds in a predictible manner to changes in Starling forces reflecting in changes in fluid flux. We also determined that the soft tissue capillary responds differently to different systemic insults, increasing both fluid and protein flux with a contralateral burn injury and demonstrating no effect from endotoxemia. Prefemoral and lung lymph flow also responded differently to the same insult indicating the importance of studying both capillary systems simultaneously. These findings reflect the need to monitor the systemic capillary. We consider this lymph preparation to be very useful for this purpose.

Looking for the global spaces in local politics

Abstract In this commentary I argue that in his paper on the politics of scale Kevin Cox fails to adequately address the global scale and its articulation with local politics. Instead he conflates the global scale with other scales of analysis and social practice such as the regional and the national by repeated use of the expression ‘more global’ to designate all extra-local scales and processes. I attempt to show why it is important to more precisely define the ‘global-local’ duality by differentiating it from other binary oppositions such as the ‘general-particular’ and ‘structure-agency’ dualities both to avoid unfruitful conflation of concepts and to advance the analysis of the politics of scale.

Transnationalism and Citizenship

Discourses on the rights, entitlements, and obligations of citizenship have changed dramatically in the past two decades as a result of the increasingly transnational character of global migration flows, cultural networks, and socio-political practices. The once taken for granted correspondence between citizenship, nation, and state has been questioned as new forms of grassroots citizenship have taken on an increasingly trans-territorial character. Resident non-citizens now routinely live and work in transnational cities throughout the world while maintaining social and political networks linking them to people and places located in their countries of origin. At the same time, the rise of supranational institutional networks and the global spread of the discourse on human rights also challenge received notions of state sovereignty. Some scholars (e.g., Soysal, 1994; Held, 1991) now depict the activities of international human rights agencies and the development of supranational authority structures like the European Union as signs of a new international order premised on the creation of plural authority and “transnational citizenship”. What sense can we make of these developments? What do they mean for the future of the nation-state? What prospects do they hold for the future of localities that become interconnected across borders by political practices and networks that I have elsewhere called “transnational urbanism?” (Smith, 1999,2001)

The Oligarchic Diffusion of Public Policy Deploying the Mexican “Magic Bullet” to Combat Poverty in New York City

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) policies are characterized as “magic bullets in development.” The New York City (NYC) CCT program, Opportunity NYC, was framed as a policy transfer experiment from Mexico’s Oportunidades. This article shows how Opportunity NYC was used to legitimate Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s power and symbolize his policy efficacy, while its private funding overrode concerns of democratic accountability. The policy rationales that justify CCTs cannot explain why particular models travel across borders, nor how such ideas are globally diffused. The case is discussed in relation to theories on diffusion of public policies and a new type, oligarchic diffusion, is proposed.

The Global Diffusion of Public Policy: Power Structures and Democratic Accountability

Abstract The global diffusion of public policies is never just the conduct of rational agents looking for the best solutions that ‘work’, but is always embedded in political and institutional interests. Dominant models of policy diffusion tend to ignore the role of oligarchic wealth in policy diffusion. Oligarchic diffusions defining feature is lack of democratic accountability. Mayor Michael Bloombergs appropriation of the Mexican conditional cash transfer model for ending poverty undermined the political accountability of urban policy-making in New York City. Some of the prevailing diffusion models elide the historically specific political and institutional interests driving the diffusion of the neoliberal policy solutions now in global circulation. Oligarchic diffusion is a dominant mechanism implicit in the other typologies. Fortunately, elite-driven policy diffusion models are not the only game in town. More democratic modes of global policy diffusion exist and show promise of better things to come.

Local Government-Supported Community Development Community Priorities and Issues of Autonomy

There is increasing support for local solutions to poverty through community-based organizations (CBOs). However, a dilemma remains: How can CBOs secure resources necessary for change and yet maintain autonomy in definition of development priorities and delivery strategies? The authors examine a community-development model used in central Florida that includes local government support in the formation and activities of a CBO, and they explore the threat to community autonomy associated with differences in development priorities between community-based and external forces. The results provide encouraging evidence that development models that include cooperation between local government and low-income communities do not necessarily produce sublimation of community priorities.

Deciding to Be Legal: A Maya Community in Houston.

Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Part I: Building a Community Structure in Houston 1. Introduction 2. Community of Origin and the Transfer of Cultural Resources 3. The Settlement Process Part II: The Journey through Legalization 4. The Social Process of Becoming Legal 5. Life after Legalization 6. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Transnational migrants as consumer advocates for remittance reform

ABSTRACT This extended case study uses a ‘conscientious consumption’ framework and a Polanyian interpretation of transnational advocacy to examine a migrant movement’s efforts to establish pricing fairness and migrant-centred development in the remittance industry. We trace how, between 2008 and 2011, the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) utilized discursive and material strategies to leverage grassroots opposition to exploitative remittance companies, to ‘certify’ alternative providers, and to garner support from the Filipino government. TIGRA expanded the scope of transnational advocacy by hybridizing capitalistic and liberatory principles and targeting both market and state actors. Though initial leverage was achieved, TIGRA’s activist allies were ultimately reluctant to engage in consumer-oriented practices. Moreover, given the ascendance of elite discourses regarding remittances and development, TIGRA had limited opportunities to generate alliances ‘from above’. We argue that TIGRA’s construction of migrants as the source and beneficiary of ethical market action inverted standard assumptions of conscientious consumption and, whilst representing an otherwise invisible group, advanced a strong pursuit of power under a usually weak reform paradigm. However, TIGRA’s inability to maintain leadership with respect to its political targets calls into question whether reflexive, market-accommodating transnational movements can build sufficient power to alter neo-liberal regulatory discourses.