Citizenship across Borders

Cornell University Press (November 2007)

Michael Peter Smith and Matt Bakker spent five years carrying out ethnographic field research in multiple communities in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Guanajuato and various cities in California, particularly metropolitan Los Angeles. Combining the information they gathered there with political-economic and institutional analysis, the five extended case studies in Citizenship across Borders offer a new way of looking at the emergent dynamics of transnational community development and electoral politics on both sides of the border. Smith and Bakker highlight the continuing significance of territorial identifications and state policies--particularly those of the sending state--in cultivating and sustaining transnational connections and practices. In so doing, they contextualize and make sense of the complex interplay of identity and loyalty in the lives of transnational migrant activists. In contrast to high-profile warnings of the dangers to national cultures and political institutions brought about by long-distance nationalism and dual citizenship, Citizenship across Borders demonstrates that, far from undermining loyalty and diminishing engagement in U.S. political life, the practice of dual citizenship by Mexican migrants actually provides a sense of empowerment that fosters migrants' active civic engagement in American as well as Mexican politics.

The Human Face of Global Mobility

Transaction Publishers (April 2006)

Drawing on the work of a long-standing discussion group at the Center for Comparative and Global Research of UCLA's International Institute, this collection bridges conventional methodological divides, bringing together political scientists, sociologists, demographers, and ethnographers. It explores the reality behind assumptions about these new global migration trends. It challenges widely held views about the elite characteristics of these migrants, the costs and consequences of the brain drain said to follow from the migration of skilled workers, the determinants of national policies on high skilled migrants, and the presumed "effortlessness" of professional mobility in an integrating world. The volume also sheds new light on international student migration, the politics of temporary, non-immigrant workers in the United States, new international forms of regulating movement, and the realities of the everyday lives of multinational employees in the world's transnational cities. Key differences between the regional contexts of this migration in Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific are also emphasized.

Transnational Urbanism

Blackwell Publishers (March 2001)

Transnational Urbanism: Locating Globalization 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.

City and Nation

Transaction Books ( March 2001)

This compendium offers a textured historical and comparative examination of the significance of locality or "place," and the role of urban representations and spatial practices in defining national identities. Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines - from literature to architecture and planning, sociology, and history - these essays problematize the dynamic between the local and the national, the cultural and the material, revealing the complex interplay of social forces by which place is constituted and contributes to the social construction of national identity in Asia, Latin America, and the United States. These essays explore the dialogue between past and present, local and national identities in the making of "modern" places. Contributions range from an assessment of historical discourses on the relationship between modernity and heritage in turn-of-the-century Suzhou to the social construction of San Antonio's Market Square as a contested presencing of the city's Mexican past. Case studies of the socio-spatial restructuring of Penang and Jakarta show how place-making from above by modernizing states is articulated with a claims-making politics of class and ethnic difference.

Transnationalism From Below

Transaction Publishers (April 1998)

Theoretical and grounded studies of transnational processes and practices discuss both their positive and negative aspects. Moving between micro and macro analyses, the book expands the boundaries of the current scholarship on transnationalism, locates new forms of transnational agency, and poses provocative questions that challenge prevailing interpretations of globalization. Of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, international relations specialists, urban planners, and policy makers.

No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

City, State, & Market

Blackwell Publishers (January 1988)

City, State and Market offers an original and penetrating critique of market capitalist, Keynesian, and structural Marxist theories of urban restructuring. Michael Peter Smith argues that historically specific socio-cultural and political relations mediate both the economic calculus of value and the formation of state policies. His historically grounded analysis of urban restructuring in the USA demonstrated convincingly that neither the market, nor its imperfections, not the 'laws of motion' of capital operating independently of society and the political sphere have produced urban problems and the crisis of the welfare state. Smith shows how political conflict for control of both space and the state has vitally shaped cities, urban policies, and the ideologies and practices of specific social interests.

The Capitalist City

Blackwell Publishers (December 1987)

The world of modern capitalism is a global network both of corporations and of cities - 'world command cities' such as New York, London and Tokyo; 'specialized command cities' which concentrate on particular industries, such as Detroit; 'state command cities' such as Washington and Brasilia; and so on. These cities, linked by an organizational web of transnational corporations, are the pins holding the capitalist world economy together in the new international division of labour. In The Capitalist City a group of eminent scholars analyzes the intricate relationships among cities, state policies and urban politics at a time of economic restructuring at global, national and local levels to provide an original and timely contribution to one of the most important areas of political and social science.