Working with “translocality”: Conceptual implications and analytical consequences

Abstract

The term translocality evolved during the mid-1990s in discussions about the social production of place and space. It goes beyond geographical notions and questions cultures as closed entities bound to nation states. The inflationary and often unreflected use of “trans-terminology” (trans-nationalism, trans-culturalism, trans-gender) exposed such words to the danger of becoming empty signifiers-catchall phrases completely lacking any theoretical or analytical value. The paper, therefore, interrogates translocality with regard to its diverse conceptualizations as a research perspective, a middle-range theory or a social fact, its potential added value and its operational limits. Taking the example of the Indian Ocean-a seascape that is produced and transformed through movement-the paper discusses one possible gateway to the study of a translocal phenomenon.