Designing a structure/agency approach to transnationalism

Research on post-migration processes usually focuses either on micro-level behaviours or on macro-level interactions between states and their diasporas. This paper aims to fill a gap by proposing a structure/agency approach likely to address the micro-, mesoand macrolevel factors that account for cross-border phenomena. The first section compares the main structure/agency approaches (Bourdieu’s theory of practice, Giddens’ structuration theory and Archer’s morphogenetics) with a view to highlighting the core elements that characterise these theories. The second section outlines an innovative framework that combines Habermas’ theory of communicative action and the ‘plural man’ theory of Bernard Lahire. The central idea is to use a renewed concept of social institutions (family, associations and businesses) as an entry to the study of social practices and structuration processes. Non-technical summary This paper proposes a structure/agency approach to address the micro-, mesoand macrolevel factors that account for cross-border phenomena. It compares the main structure/agency approaches: Bourdieu’s theory of practice, Giddens’ structuration theory and Archer’s morphogenetics. The paper takes the basic components of the structure/agency theory and uses them to define a new approach to transnationalism. The author suggests that the Habermas theory of communicative action and the non-Cartesian concept of the plural man provide a better framework for understanding the converging dynamic of actors’ practices and their structural impacts. Any form of transnational practice can be understood as the agentic strategies of migrants who want to overcome the fundamental contradiction of their position: being here but not from here, being from there