ABSTRACT
This chapter examines transnationalism as a form of collective identity being shaped under the conditions of globalization. All too often these days we hear about the effects that globalization might have on identity in terms of a ‘post-national genre’ or an ‘in-between ethnicization’ of identities – whereby identity becomes permeable, fluid and multiple. In sharp contrast, my focus in this chapter is on an apparently opposite process, that of constructing strong, local identities of a transnational character. This paradoxical twist can be explained in terms of the dialectics of globalization and localization that are omnipresent on a world scale. As described recently by Peter Kloos (2000: 281), globalization and localization are two processes seemingly pointing in opposite directions:
… in the realm of politics the national state is rapidly losing its glorified sovereignty in favour of transnational, continental, or even global regimes, while at the same time a number of substantive minorities are clamouring for more autonomy and political independence.
