Translocal Subjectivities: Mobility, Connection, Emotion

This special issue is concerned with the complex forms of subjectivity and feeling that emerge through geographical mobility. The mobility of particular interest is that which spans national borders, specifically in the sense of transnational migration, with its dynamics of departure, circulation and extended social networks. In examining the subjectivities that emerge through such movement, our starting point is the now relatively widespread understanding of the self as a relational achievement. From this perspective who we are derives in part from the multiple connections we have to other people, events and things, whether these are geographically close or distant, located in the present or past. This constellation of others may influence us in diverse ways, acting via physical encounter and somatic internalisation, in response to the power of images and narratives, and through the operation of memory and desire. The everyday mannerisms that characterise a person – their rhythms of speech, bodily comportment and taste preferences – are testament to such influences, while also highlighting the complex interplay between inheritance and environment. We can also observe that some events and relational connections have enduring impacts upon the self, such as the resonance of educational opportunity or perhaps the grief of a personal loss. Others touch us only fleetingly, however, and are quickly absorbed in the passing flow of life, seemingly forgotten. Selfhood is thus always a hybrid achievement, emerging out of a diverse