In recent decades, the rise of world markets and the technological revolutions in transportation and communication have brought what was once distant and inaccessible within easy reach of the individual. The territorial and social closure that characterized nation-states is fading, and this is reflected not only in new forms of governance and economic globalization, but also in individual mobility and transnational transactions, affiliations and networks. Social Transnationalism explores new forms of cross-border interactions and mobility which have expanded across physical space by looking at the individual level. It asks whether we are dealing with unbridled movements and cross-border interactions which transform the lifeworlds of individuals fundamentally. Furthermore, it investigates whether, and to what degree, increases in the volume of transnational interactions weaken the individual citizen's bond to the nation-state as such, and to what extent citizens' national identities are being replaced or complemented by cosmopolitan ones

1. Introduction Part 1: From National Containers to Transnational Social Spaces 2. The Nation-State as Container? 3. Globalization, De-Nationalization, and World Society 4. Transnationalism and Transmigration 5. Transnationalization from Below 6. From Presence to Absence 7. Spaces and Networks of Border-Crossing Part 2: The Cartography of Transnational Social Relations 8. The Geographic Range of German Transnational Social Networks 9. Family Networks: Closeness with Distance 10. Mobility across Borders 11. Student Mobility on the Global Campus 12. International Tourism: People on the Move 13. Transnationalization of the Immobile Part 3: Transnationalism and the New Cosmopolitanism 14. The Cosmopolitan Perspective 15. Attribution of Responsibility 16. Attitudes towards Foreigners 17. Transnational Trust 18. Identity: From National to Supranational? 19. Globalization: Threat or Promise? Part 4: Unequal Transnationalism 20. Fragmentation through Transnationalism? 21. Transnationalism of the Masses or of the Elites? 22. Divided Transnationalism: West versus East? 23. Global City and Provincial Province? 24. Younger Generations as Movers of Social Transnationalism 25. Gender and Transnational Involvement Part 5: Conclusion 26. Social Transnationalism: Reconfiguring Society and State-Relations