Diagnosing transnationality

The chapter investigates the genealogy of a transnational ethics. That is, inFoucauldian terms, how transnational living is constructed as an ethical substance,the modes through which the actors become invited to problematisetheir transnational conduct and the telos to which they are impelled to aspire.Using multimodal discourse analysis, the chapter uncovers the discursivetechnologies through which therapeutic practice (as well as the genres andinstitutions implicated in it) is employed in using the individual’s relationship tooneself to exercise and rationalise a transnational ethics. The analysis demonstrateshow discursive practices, dispersed across multiple modalities, participatein the formation of alliances between diverse regimes of transnationalliving, such as computer-mediated transnational spaces, diaspora communities,national and para-national institutions and professional associations. In doingso, the analysis makes visible how new agents and authorities become recruitedfor administering transnational conduct. The chapter argues that these assemblagesand the transnational ethics made visible through the analysis primethe mechanisms of transnational governmentality and prepare the basis for arestrictive morality through which transnational conduct can be regulated.