Transnational imagination and social practices: a transnational website in a migrant community

Abstract

In this article, we examine how collective notions of belonging and imagination become a fertile terrain upon which transnational websites can sustain certain social practices across national boundaries that would be otherwise difficult. Drawing on field work carried out in the United States and Mexico, and using transnational imagination as our analytical lens, we observed three phenomena that are closely related to the use of a transnational website by a migrant community. First, the transnational website under study was a place for a collective imaginary rather than just for the circulation of news. Also, through transnational imagination, migrants can make claims about their status in their community of origin. Moreover, the website is instrumental in harmonizing the various views of the homelands’ realities. Finally, the website can inspire us to look beyond dyadic forms of communication