Mohanty/Alexander and Shohat
Alexander and Mohanty's introduction to their concept of transnational feminism has several key components that seem to set the definition apart. First, they take a contextual approach to feminism and transnationalism or colonialism: every aspect of gender, class, and race exists within both local and global power structures. Furthermore, every postcolonial and feminist practice exists within a historical context of these cultural, economic, and political power structures. They focus also on the interconnectedness of relationships among people in a geographical and feminist context.
What I had trouble with in this reading is their critique of postmodernist theory relating to decolonization. It seems they are arguing for a more differential view than what postmodernism has to offer, in that we need to regard people of different geogrpahies and racial categories according to these differences in order to understand the process of decolonizing, whereas postmodernism disregards these categories, effectively lumping together people across geographies and social categories. Is this correct? Would Shohat's idea of "liberal-pluralist" be comparable to their definition of postmodernism?
As for Shohat, her definition of transnational feminism focuses, similarly to Mohanty/Alexander, on relational studies. Her explanation of how multicultural feminism seeks to decolonize is easier for me to understand because she explains her definition of colonialism/ postcolonialism in more concrete terms: we are seeking to decolonize nation states, representation, and communities.