What About the ‘National’ When Doing Transnational Research?—Reflections on Biographical Research, Translations and the Impact of Power Relations

Abstract

The article questions the meaning of the ‘national,’ the ‘cultural’ and the ‘ethnical’ when doing transnational research. It also reflects on some epistemological and methodological challenges that arise when doing research in a transnational context. It focuses particularly on the methodology of biographical research, its implicit assumptions on biographical narrating and the translation of biographical narrations in a transnational academic context. On the one hand, biographical research is able to assess multiple belongings and globalised biographies. On the other hand, I will examine the assumptions and expectations of the interviewees and interviewers with regard to their context-specific diversity. The paradox of transnational studies is precisely that they include a meaningful concept of nationality and culture. Various empirical research projects in Mexico will serve as reference points for these considerations.

Keywords:

• transnational methodology
• translation
• biographical research
• narrating and power-knowledge-relations