Transnational Urbanism is a profound work of theoretical synthesis. Moving deftly across disciplines, urban theorist Michael Peter Smith criticizes the one-sided nature of globalization theory that has influenced urban studies scholars in the past two decades. Smith treats globalization not as an accomplished fact, but as an unfinished project of social and political practices.
Central questions posed in this book explore how and why transnational migrants, refugees, diasporas, ethnic formations, entrepreneurs, political activists, and institutional networks locate and actively maintain social relations, as well as how transnational practices relate to the neo-liberal project of corporate globalization. The book foregrounds the continuing significance of cities as mediators of power and as the human foundation of contemporary transnationalism.