ABSTRACT
From the northern Swedish city of Östersund, she took the long-distance train to Stockholm overnight, to conduct some interviews about the effects of global structural transformations on local communities and ‘local people's’ living conditions. Globalization, uneven development and the unequal distribution of global resources are increasingly transforming the structural and institutional properties of local communities and challenging nation-states and their policies. She was convinced that the social sciences should consider such transformations in order to be able to change the living conditions of ‘local people’ for the better. She was going through two simultaneous journeys, one to Stockholm and one in her mind trying to find answers to her major questions; questions such as why the world is so unfair and why some, like herself, are privileged enough to sleep in a comfortable train compartment while millions of her sisters and brothers around the world dream of both a journey by train and a place to sleep well. And when they do take a train, many women and men, called migrants, are forced to leave their beloved children, lovers and families behind in order to find a job or earn money for the survival of their family. But for her a nice, warm hotel room was waiting. She was thinking of her place and position in such an unjust world.
