{"id":1384,"date":"2019-04-08T14:31:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T14:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2019-04-08T14:31:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T14:31:48","slug":"transnationalism-a-forgotten-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/2019\/04\/08\/transnationalism-a-forgotten-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Transnationalism, a forgotten meaning?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A common concern among transnational historians is the use\nof transnational history. For many, it seems transnationalism is becoming a buzzword\nfor a progressive perspective of history. Ulrike Lindner article \u201cTransnational\nmovements between colonial empires: migrant workers from the British Cape Colony\nin the German diamond town of L\u00fcderitzbucht\u201d offers an interesting to way to\nexplore this. Openly, Lindner acknowledges that geographic space under investigation,\nthe \u2018demarcation\u2019 between colonial borders in south west Africa is not\ntransnational if the definition provided by David Thelen is considered to be\ngospel. This is because the political entities under investigation were not nation\nstates but colonies.<a href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is of particular interest to myself, as my project is based in the early 17<sup>th<\/sup> century. Ideas of nationhood were yet to develop. Does this mean that like Lindner I can\u2019t write a transnational history? The answer for me is not as simple as yes or no. Lindner states that her work is transnational, for the areas under discussion were heavily influenced by British and German colonial administrations shaped by two different national perspectives. Although, this is supported by Kiran Klaus Patel argument for national consciousness as defining factor of transnational history, it is not entirely convincing.<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Terminology such as translocality may have been more appropriate to explore regional colonial administration, rather a suggesting a more national, universal approach to colonial policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Transnational history has created a new way to view history,\nits emphasis on movement and interconnectedness resonating in a world which has\nan increasingly global outlook. It is, therefore, understanding why historians\nsuch as Lindner want to utilise it, for it emphasis interaction and\ncooperation. This is why I find the article so engaging, as it successfully explores\nthe interaction and movement of \u2018Capeboys\u2019 within the British and German\ncolonial governments of south west Africa. Comparable to my work in the fact\nthat I want to explore English merchants in relation to the Japanese and other\nEuropean trade companies within Hirado, Japan. However, I am uncertain whether\nto call this transnational history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would argue that translocality is a better fit for future historical\ninvestigation. Admittedly it doesn\u2019t have the ring of transnational history,\nbut it opens up the historians\u2019 perspective to so much more. By stating that\nthe study is transnational in nature, the historian automatically places\nboundaries on their investigation. Translocality, on the other hand, offers a flexibility\nin perspective that not only allows for exploration the nation but other scales\nand spaces within history. This is reflected in the questions raised within the\narticle \u2018Networks of Decolonization in Asia and Africa\u2019, suggesting the possibility\nthat people can operate in multiple temporal frame works as well as highlighting\nthe blurred boundaries in thematic history such as between Afro-Asianism, imperial\nand Cold War frame works.<a href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>  Lindner, Ulrike. \u201cTransnational Movements between Colonial Empires: Migrant Workers from the British Cape Colony in the German Diamond Town of L\u00fcderitzbucht.\u201d European Review of History: Revue Europeenne D\u2019histoire 16, no. 5 (2009): 680.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a>  Afro-Asian Networks Research Collective (2018), \u2018Manifesto: Networks of Decolonization in Asia and Africa\u2019, Radical History Review, 179.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A common concern among transnational historians is the use of transnational history. For many, it seems transnationalism is becoming a buzzword for a progressive perspective of history. Ulrike Lindner article \u201cTransnational movements between colonial empires: migrant workers from the British<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-mk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}