Conferred cosmopolitanism: class-making strategies of elite schools across the world

Abstract

Drawing on a multi-sited global ethnography of elite schools, this article explores how these institutions work to produce subjects that will thrive in a globalized world. We examine how despite a similar commitment to global citizenship education and a cosmopolitan orientation across all schools, the intersections between the transnational and national sphere continue to shape the specific futures students are being prepared for. Thus, while all schools understand cosmopolitanism as being acquired by working across difference and having international mobility experiences, the specificities of the national socio-economic contexts and the founding principles of each institution, shapes the kinds of ‘leaders’ being formed, which in turn differentiates the specific cosmopolitan practices being promoted. Ultimately, these elite institutions are seeking to create an elite class by conferring a cosmopolitan status on their students which will have direct convertibility for the specific futures being envisioned for them.