ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the research optic of “transnational urbanism” to take stock of the emergent interpenetration of transnational and urban studies. In reviewing developments criss-crossing this literature, I argue the study of social relations “from the middle” have developed in two distinct ways. Transnationalism “from in-between,” as originally conceived in Transnational Urbanism, refers to actors and historical agents who mediate between transnational actors “from above” and “from below.” “Middling transnationalism,” in contrast, refers to the transnational practices of middle-class social actors. I argue that both conceptualizations are useful and potentially complementary. Research on transnational urbanism is aware of the “situated subjectivity” of human agents while also providing a way to study spatially distanciated social relations. Research in the field has begun to attend to the emplacement of mobile subjects and the embodiment of their everyday practices and mobilities. Future research in urban studies will therefore need to attend to the power/knowledge venues by which state structures, institutional channels, and other actors broker “mobile subjects” cross-border interconnectivity.
