COSMOPOLITAN CITIES AND THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the actual theme of modern urban science – the multiculturalism of the city. Author asks the question how the cosmopolitan cities of the past, where there were no modern institutions, developed civic society, public administration and services, and police units, could manage without conflict by the coexistence of the groups, characterized by different ethnic and cultural identities. To understand the everyday practice of the multiculturalism at the time, the cases of medievalCordobaand Ottoman’sConstantinoplehave been analyzed. The author resumes that there are two key factors impacting the policy in the chosen cities: 1) the practical necessity of intercultural contacts that is “forced” to tolerance, and 2) the development of the common market of theMediterranean. Sensitivity of the cosmopolitan cities to geopolitical context is pointed out. Integrated under the conditions of a strong state and growing economy, when wealth, status and power motivate peoples to integrate, these cities lose this ability as their geopolitical position weakens. Cosmopolitanism ensures the city’s participation in global processes, but sustainable development depends rather on local factors. To conclude, the author emphasizes that in actual conditions, when the “needs” in multiculturalism as some kind of “compulsion” are missing, cosmopolitanism erodes the local social capital and paradoxically generates not tolerance, but the demand for increase of control.