New Books Network Emanuel Deutschmann, "Mapping the Transnational World: How We Move and Communicate Across Borders, and Why It Matters" (Princeton UP, 2022)
Dec 23, 2025
Emanuel Deutschmann, Assistant Professor at the University of Flensburg, discusses his insights on transnational mobility and communication. He reveals that our interactions across borders are heavily influenced by geographic distance, challenging the idea of a fully globalized world. His research spans migration, tourism, and digital connections, uncovering stable regional patterns over decades. Deutschmann also highlights how mobility behaviors cluster regionally and questions the notion of European exceptionalism, emphasizing that borders still play a crucial role in shaping human activity.
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A Year In Ecuador Sparked The Inquiry
- Deutschmann lived in Ecuador at 16 and that personal mobility sparked his interest in global connectedness.
- That experience helped motivate his comparative, region-focused research on transnational ties.
Distance Still Drives Connectivity
- Geographic distance remains the dominant factor structuring transnational mobility and communication networks.
- Most cross-border interaction occurs within regions and to neighboring countries, not globally.
Large-Scale Comparative Dataset
- Deutschmann compiled global data (196 countries, ~38,000 pairs) across eight mobility and communication types from 1960–2010.
- He used UN/UNESCO and other sources to create a comparative, longitudinal network dataset.