The cosmopolitan continuum: locating cosmopolitanism in media and cultural studies

Abstract

The purpose of this article is not only to provide a review of how cosmopolitanism has been theorized in the past, but also to propose a new way of thinking about cosmopolitanism. Beginning with a critique of how media and morality literature ignores an exploration of cosmopolitanism from the perspective of everyday life, this article proposes that we examine cosmopolitanism as an identity with four key ‘performances’ with a distinct moral hierarchy: (a) ecstatic cosmopolitanism, (b) banal cosmopolitanism, (c) instrumental cosmopolitanism and (d) closed cosmopolitanism. I argue that individuals weave in and out of expressions of openness to the Other based on particular contexts. Taking a bottom-up perspective, I posit that the field of media and morality will benefit from asking when and why do individuals ‘open up’ and ‘close in’ from the wider world, and how is the media significant (or not) in expressions of cosmopolitanism. Studying cosmopolitan identity as a contextual, fragile identity that is enabled/disabled by various factors allows us to see which media contents and contexts transform our ‘fear of touch’ to a ‘caress’ for the Other, and which prompt us to fall back on the scale.