Globalisation, Cosmopolitanism and the Environment

Abstract

In this article the question of whether dialogic cosmopolitanism is an adequate normative response to globalisation is broached. First, a distinction is drawn between ‘interdependence’ and ‘asymmetrical’ analyses of globalisation, and a brief defence of the latter is offered. Asymmetrica globalisation is illustrated through environmental examples. Second, dialogic cosmopolitanism is described. It is argued that the normative focus on unconstrained dialogue of this type of cosmopolitanism runs the risk of underestimating the significance of what ‘subaltern’ populations have already managed to say about their condition, even in less-than-ideal dialogic circumstances. This leads to the suggestion that in an asymmetrically globalising world, more justice as well as more unconstrained dialogue is what is required.