Please join us for a TNS workshop today, Wednesday 12 March, 4.20pm-7.00pm in 65a/2251.

A network of ties, or tied to a network?

Led by: Jenny Cuffe & Heather Meyer

PhD students Heather Meyer and Jenny Cuffe lead a workshop on transnational social ties, using examples from their current research to illustrate what it means to be ‘globally connected’.

As a member of a global network of international schools, one such institution based in Germany brands itself as an establishment which fosters a community of ‘global nomads’- individuals who have the capacity to cross national borders as ‘cultural chameleons’. Yet many find negotiating their local host society outside of the school circuit an immensely challenging task.

For Zimbabwean migrants, uprooted and scattered by political and economic turmoil, it is the family network that provides security and a focus for identity. But ties of affection and obligation may be stretched to breaking point and the family may have to change shape in order to survive.

Presentations about these research projects will be followed by a discussion about the relevance of trans-local networks in the study of contemporary society.

ALL WELCOME!