In his article, \u201cSpatializing Transnational History: European Spaces and Territories\u201d, \u00c1ngel Alcalde outlines the two main epistemological approaches to the problem of space in transnational history: a constructivist approach detached from geographical determinism, and one which combines different scales of analysis without challenging established definitions of space. This later approach is one which\u00a0I believe will be useful\u00a0in\u00a0conceptualizing\u00a0 transnational reproduction\u00a0 in all the diseparate\u00a0social and\u00a0political spaces\u00a0that it operates within and through. Alcalde highlights a distinction between borders and frontiers, the former being formal demarcations of ownership and the latter being\u00a0 zones where social systems come into contact. For my purposes, this can be applied to human beings in that intending parents who travel to a foreign country to receive their baby born from surrogacy,\u00a0 cross a physical border but perhaps more importantly, they encounter a frontier where the socio-political tendencies of their home country interact with those of the country where their surrogate resides. This becomes clear when one looks at the incompatible legal frameworks in different countries which affect the degree of difficulty intending parents have in obtaining a passport for their child born of surrogacy, as well as the\u00a0 socio-cultural considerations which shape how\u00a0people in different places view transnational reproduction.\u00a0The space in which transnational reproduction operates is inherently constructed both transnationally and historically, by rules and regulations set by different nations, on one hand, and by social and cultural\u00a0 specificities on the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alcalde draws on Muller and Torp\u2019s (2009)\u00a0 conception of transnational spaces to explain how space is a functional category constructed through economic, social, cultural or political interactions which acquires meaning\u00a0 in relation to a set of perceptions and interests in a given context. In my research, the transnational space which I am looking at are all those locations throughout the globe which are involved in the process of transnational reproduction, as well as the localized spaces which\u00a0 take on a global character due\u00a0 to the intersection of different people, beliefs, legal precedents, and economic interests. Alcalde also mentions an article by Struck, Ferris, and Revel (2011) in which the authors advocate a focus on micro-scales in transnational research\u00a0 because\u00a0 these processes are often best \u201cfelt\u201d at the local\u00a0 or individual level. I believe this point is particularly important for my research due to the important ethical considerations which arise when talking about transnational reproduction. In my research so far I have gained important insights by reading articles and books and by watching\u00a0 documentaries on individuals’ experience with transnational reproduction.\u00a0It it my hope that the final product of my research will not only offer some interesting insights into the phenomenon of transnational reproduction, but also do justice to the people directly affected by it , especially those who are most vulnerable and have the least agency in this process: the surrogate mothers and the babies they produce.\u00a0This blog post should serve as a starting point for my short essay, in which I would like to tease out some of the methodological considerations which will determine how I write my own transnational history of transnational reproduction. Although the topic necessitates a transnational lens, the methodology is less clear, and I believe that devoting this short essay to this topic will allow me to formulate a coherent plan of action for tackling the final project\/essay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his article, \u201cSpatializing Transnational History: European Spaces and Territories\u201d, \u00c1ngel Alcalde outlines the two main epistemological approaches to the problem of space in transnational history: a constructivist approach detached from geographical determinism, and one which combines different scales of<\/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-2200","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-zu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200","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=2200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions\/2201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}