Transnationality as practice. An analytical proposal for applying Bourdieu in transnational studies

Abstract

This article develops a praxeological approach to migrant transnationality drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory. Based on qualitative research with Tunisian migrants and their descendants in Italy, it reconstructs the transnational social space of this community by identifying its two structuring dimensions: agents’ overall endowment of resources and their configurations of social capital. By situating individuals relationally along these axes, the study identifies five ideal-typical transnational lifestyles. Participants' positions within this space correspond to distinct dispositions, identity narratives, and practices such as return mobility, food preferences, language use, and symbolic forms of distancing – embodied and classed expressions of a transnational habitus. In doing so, the article challenges methodological individualism and essentialist views of migrant communities, offering a framework for capturing heterogeneity and stratification within transnational environments. Built interpretively on a single community, this analytical framework lays the groundwork for a broader praxeological programme integrating subjective dispositions and objective structures.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2026 · DOI ↗