跨國公民政治是國關學界在過去三十多年間開啟的新研究領域。數十年下來，學界已累積一定研究經驗與成果。為使本研究課題能更進一步深入發展，實有必要統整迄今之研究發現，有系統地了解與整理學界於此議題的發展軌跡，以便釐清其中的特點、突破與不足。本文主要目的有二，分析近年來跨國政治研究的發展脈絡，進而討論至今跨國公民政治研究的發現與局限。

本研究認為，跨國公民政治研究，在研究方法上歷經多次的典範轉移，開啟不同的研究視角，不同階段的研究發現也使跨國公民政治的面貌得以逐漸地被清晰呈現。國關學界的跨國公民政治研究，在過去近四十年來的發展脈絡，第一代研究開啟了新的方法論;第二代研究則著眼於公民行為者作為國際政治能動者的身分，及其與環境結構的互動影響，跨國公民政治研究的基本學理架構也逐漸成型;第三代研究則轉向實證研究，進一步探索公民行為者之間的個別差異，並擷取跨學科的研究經驗，用以歸納並理解不同的跨國公民政治，並因此有三種主要的跨國公民政治理論:跨國社會運動論、跨國倡議網絡論、跨國認證網絡理論。三種理論各自著墨不同的跨國公民政治經驗，且有不同的研究發展。綜觀理論學界的耕耘，本研究並指出跨國政治研究也從純粹的國際關係領域，越來越朝向跨學科整合的方向發展。

The field of transnational civil politics have been a rapidly developing research focus in the international relations scholarship, and impressive amounts of research findings have been published during the last few decades. It is essential to review and examine the systemic development of research in the academia. This paper aims to tackle the task by reviewing and analyzing the research path of transnational civil politics studies, hoping that the discussion will not only provide an overall historical analysis of the research development in the subject but offer perspectives on the future direction.

This paper finds that there are three main stages of the research development, each with different research methodology, concerns and assumptions. The first stage highlights the emergence of transnational actors on the state-centric international politics and stimulates the growth of new methodology with non-state actors as the analytical unit. By contrast, the research focus of the second stage turns to the feasibility and possibility of transnational actors as agent in international politics. The third stage further examines the diversifies transnational actors and their different approaches as political agents. The paper concludes by suggesting that more inter- disciplinary attempts are needed for further development of the research topic.