De-naturalizing the national in research methodologies: key concepts of transnational studies in migration

Abstract

Building on the transnational approach to migration, this introduction outlines some elements of the programme of an emergent methodological transnationalism. This effort aims to de-naturalize the concept of the national within migration studies. First, the analysis identifies methodological challenges of migration studies, such as contextualization, the ethnic lens and the essentializing view on ethnicity. Second, it indicates the relevant conceptual elements which deal with these methodological challenges, such as the critique of methodological nationalism, cosmopolitanism and the relational concept of space. Third, it addresses the relevant methods, such as multi-sited ethnography, the mobile methods approach, as well as researchers' positionality and strategies of de-ethnicization, all of which correspond to the new epistemology of migration studies. Finally, it highlights the common characteristics of the contributions to this special issue, which go beyond the normative view of cross-border migration.     

Molecular taxonomy: description of a cryptic Petitia species (Polychaeta: Syllidae) from the island of Mahé (Seychelles, Indian Ocean) using RAPD markers and ITS2 sequences

Petitia occulta sp. n. provides an example demonstrating that a morphologically indistinguishable species taxon can be described by molecular markers alone. Phenotypically the polychaete belongs to Petitia amphophthalma Siewing, 1956, one of the numerous meiofaunal species that have previously been regarded as cosmopolitan. Genotypically, however, by means of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)–polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (a DNA-fingerprinting technique) the population on the Indo-Pacific island of Mahé can be identified as a distinct taxonomic entity as: (1) genetic distance values between the Petitia from the Seychelles and from other sites (Mediterranean, Canary Islands) are relatively great; (2) differently generated cluster analyses of genetic distances produce phenograms revealing a distinctly separate clade (bootstrap 100%) for the Seychelles animals; and (3) the Seychelles animals are characterized by eight monomorphic diagnostic (i.e. autapomorphic) DNA-fragments. The RAPD procedure in this case requires the preparation of the whole organisms and, thus, no holotype is available. Instead the RAPD band-pattern with the diagnostic markers of one individual obtained with six primers, isolated DNA of one individual, and syntypes in the form of fixed, complete individuals are deposited. Species differentiation is confirmed by genomic DNA sequencing (ITS2).     

The taxonomy and biogeography of the Cladocera

For a variety of reasons, including the analysis of a number of taxa having the same names on different continents, we have concluded overwhelmingly that the chydorid Cladocera are not cosmopolitan in distribution but instead are restricted to smaller regions by their specific ecological requirements for habitat type and also by long-term events in earth history. Recent study ofChydorus faviformis and species resembling it indicates there has been no effective exchange of genetic material between North America and South America, nor between Australia and Asia, nor even between China, Malaysia, and India in southern Asia. Moreover, the patterns of distribution are even narrower than this, as in North America, for example, taxa having the same names in the southern states as in the northern states are differentiated at the species level in some instances, possibly in most. Southern species push northward along the Atlantic Coast for varying distances, one species having reached Nova Scotia and Newfoundland probably during the warm interval in mid-Postglacial time. Thus, when species are studied closely to define their morphological limits, cosmopolitanism disappears, and patterns of distribution emerge that are very similar to those of other animals and plants. The ‘species’ that have been claimed to be cosmopolitan are being shown to be groups or complexes of morphologically similar species instead, each member species of which has a much more restricted distribution than the group or complex as a whole. To explain how the different continents can have such similar lists of ‘species’ without intercontinental dispersal of resting eggs occurring almost continuously, we are suggesting plate tectonics and the drifting of continents, either apart or together.     

Tuning in or turning off: performing emotion and building cosmopolitan solidarity in international music competitions

This article suggests that international classical music competitions are becoming sites of the global cultural public sphere. Like post-traditional festivals, they have previously served as arenas where nations compete for supremacy. But as these events become more globalized, they create opportunities to foster cosmopolitan sociability and cultivate global values. Through a discourse analysis of media coverage and online commentary from a selected case, I examine how difference is constructed in the competition context and how these categories complicate attempts to relate musically across differences. This analysis highlights the central role of emotion in the process of cultural inclusion, both as a discursive trope in evaluations of musical authenticity and as a signifier of value justifying the incorporation of a wider range of people into the circle of great musicians.     

The reticulated species of Chydorus (Cladocera,Chydoridae): two new species with suggestions of convergence

Of the two small, compact, dusky, reticulated species of Chydorus from Sri Lanka, one arbitrarily has been selected as the taxon to which Daday's name reticulatus henceforward will be attached, the other herein being described as new. A third species from eastern North America, also described herein as new, resembles the two Asian species in certain gross features but otherwise is very distinct. Particularly noteworthy among these differences are the structure of the labrum and of the male postabdomen and copulatory hook. The question is raised whether the gross morphological features that seem to unite the taxa or the features of the labrum and of the male that separate them are the more conservative. No unequivocal answer is provided. Because of their obvious close similarity, the two Asian species are established as a species group, the one from North America being divergent and therefore not included. The possibility of convergence is considered.The North American taxon in north Florida occurs in waterbodies with a pH less than 5 (down to 4.2), conductivity less than 40 µS, and usually with no more than a trace of dissolved color. They are naturally acidic, non-bog lakes. The number of species of chydorids and of total littoral Cladocera in them are considerably greater than found by Fryer in waterbodies of comparable acidity in England. The occurrence also of a diversity of macrophytes and fishes in these lakes indicates that pH per se is not the factor forcing the decreasing diversity associated with changes resulting from acid precipitation.