Idea Of Cosmopolitanism Research Articles

Cosmopolitanism – Not a ‘major ideology’, but still an ideology

Today the idea of cosmopolitanism has become widely accepted as an appropriate answer to what we now call globalization. A key reference is Kant who argues for a Recht of the world citizen, and this is normally understood as a cosmopolitan law. Apparently Kant lets the law of the world citizen be limited to a right to visit, but somehow his peace project must imply something more than just this very modest claim. Following a hint from Kant himself I take a closer look at the material aspect of cosmopolitanism, i.e. the economy of travelling, and it appears that cosmopolitanism can function as an ideology for letting possible investors look for business cases, that is, for promising places for capitalist exploitation. As an answer to such strong material processes cosmopolitanism is insufficient, both as a moral imperative and as a stipulated right. What we need is a more comprehensive political and legal perspective and the solutions this indicates. To get inspiration for this, however, we can turn to Kant again, since it turns out that he does not argue for cosmopolitanism at all, neither as a programme nor as an ideology. For Kant the overall goal is perpetual peace, and the law of the world citizen represents only one subordinate element. As an answer to globalization we should thus drop the limited ideal of cosmopolitanism and follow Kant in his ambition of a threefold political constitution comprising state law, law of the people and law of the world citizen.

Contested Cosmopolitanisms: Global Meetings and Local Mobilizations

This article analyzes the ways that Pittsburgh anarchist activists, politicians, and journalists framed the 2009 G‐20 meetings and protests through a content analysis of newspaper articles and activist documents. Our analysis found that cosmopolitanism was a central discourse, but it was also contested. Pittsburgh anarchists introduced an open‐community cosmopolitanism that prioritizes the local over the global as a site of struggle and also embraces expansion of rights and commitment to diversity and inclusivity. Somewhat unexpectedly, this open‐community cosmopolitanism was successfully transmitted beyond activist discourse into the public and the local media. The anarchist activist open‐community framing challenged Pittsburgh residents to question whether increased global corporate investments were best for Pittsburgh and, in doing so, fostered connections between local anarchist activists, local journalists, and local Pittsburgh residents. To reflect on the ways that activists contribute to ideas of cosmopolitanism, this article presents a theoretical model that incorporates individual and collective dispositions and multiple ideological standpoints. We also show how movement groups may strategically draw on these shared cosmopolitan dispositions to expand their movement base, communicate their messages, and challenge the hegemony of global capitalism.

Re-embedding European Social Citizenship through Cosmopolitanism

This article tackles the issue of social citizenship in Europe, beyond its legal and political defini-tion, as the result of social mechanisms and practices, and it assumes the cosmopolitan perspective as a conceptual tool for the interpretation of changes in its principles and structure as related to Europeaniza-tion and globalisation. It starts from the heuristic value of the concept, grounded in modern industrial so-cieties and built on its institutions and forms of social solidarity. Then it draws on the debate about the challenges of the welfare state and capitalism’s transformations, as well as on the impact on social citizen-ship of the European integration process. It proposes cosmopolitanism as a lens for catching cosmopolitan ideas, narratives and values that contribute to creating new practices of solidarity and mutual recognition, which are the basis for the construction of new kinds of sustainable social citizenship in Europe. The Euro-pean social forum of 2012 has been considered a significant case study for an empirical exploration of the cosmopolitan imagination as a factual process. A cosmopolitan epistemology takes shape, based on the values of commons and global public goods. Meanings, actions and practices enhanced by social actors, building solidarity in diversity and following global-local logics, show forms of recognition of otherness and of sharing global responsibilities representing a tendency towards a new conception of European social citizenship. Social rights and recognition beyond territorial boundaries are at the core of the construction of a cosmopolitan citizenship in Europe.

Nationalizing Science in Mid-Nineteenth Century Russia: Ideological Origins of the Naval Ministry's “Literary Expedition”

This article discusses the issue of conflicting “languages” inside the literary ethnography of mid-nineteenth century imperial Russia. The case under investigation here is the Russian Naval Ministry's “literary expedition”, launched by Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevič in 1855–1861 to study the fishing and shipping practices of different parts of the Russian Empire and to produce sketches about them. Exploring the preparatory stage of the expedition, the author identifies the European and Russian precedents of literary ethnography from Adelbert Chamisso's Reise um die Welt to Ivan Gončarov's Frigate Pallas, which may have provided a model for Konstantin. Extant unpublished documents of the expedition from Russian and Estonian archives allow us to reconstruct its ideological origins and to show that it was born from the spirit of the Russian Geographical Society's projects and the so-called “nationalizing” paradigm of ethnographic knowledge that dominated the discursive field in the 1850s. The author demonstrates that the underlying idea of the expedition had much in common with Slavophile ethnography (the case of Ivan Aksakov) and its project of “Russian science”. The last part of the article shows how this “nationalizing” paradigm clashed with cosmopolitan and liberal ideas when Konstantin was launching the expedition.

Globalization and Cosmopolitanism: Some Challenges

This paper discusses certain major challenges to the justification of ethical cosmopolitanism's existence. They can be understood in the context of effects of the global economy on human life and values, due its social imbalances and inequalities. The foremost guiding idea of ethical cosmopolitanism maintains that all humans must be considered to be equal. However, this postulate is questioned in the globalization era.Forced migration is the first challenge to the justification of cosmopolitan-ism nowadays. It spells out the global displacement of people caused by poverty and war danger. Today the economic and political elite in the world ignores its obligation to treat equally victims of forced migration, and is inclined to treat multiculturalism as useless. The growth of forced migration witnessed at present is caused by the existing deepening of inequalities and global injustice.Another challenge is the moral criticism of global capitalism starting from the point of view of the existence of alternative globalism. Many organizations of the global civic society have established international cooperation in their collective actions for the development of a socially-responsible globalization.Third challenge in this context are the abuses of cosmopolitanism in its justification of the so-called “humanitarian interventions” of the international community in shouldering the responsibility for mankind's development and securing human rights. Cosmopolitanism could thus be used as an ideology by the richest elites to justify their worldwide expansionism. The idea that the international community is interested in the preservation of human rights when they are violated by a “dictatorial state” is being forwarded. Yet, there is no doubt that some of these interventions have been motivated by imperialist strategies of “the Great Powers” in action.

Between cosmopolitanism and nationalism. The role of expatriates in the dissemination of Leibniz’s differential calculus

In contrast to Isaac Newton’s method of fluxions, the early propagation and application of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s differential calculus appeared to be very much a European affair. The mathematical correspondents of Leibniz were living in Italy, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. However, this first impression is deceptive. Besides Jacob Bernoulli in Basel two more correspondents were German speaking: Rudolf Christian von Bodenhausen in Florence and Johann Bernoulli in Groningen in the Netherlands. Indeed, among the most fervent early supporters of Leibniz’s calculus, Guillaume François Antoine de L’Hospital in Paris was the only not self-identifying as German. The aim of this article is to study the interaction the expatriates Bodenhausen and Johann Bernoulli with their new local communities and to exhibit how it relates to their scientific activities in general and their partisanship for the differential calculus in particular. In addition, I will highlight the fate of the Swiss Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, who was an ardent supporter of Newton’s method of fluxions and who lived in England for most of his life. Particular attention will be paid to the role of nationality and nationalism, which conflicted with the cosmopolitan idea of the Republic of Letters.

‘Like a foreigner in my own homeland’: writing the dilemmas of return in the Vietnamese American diaspora

In what ways can refugees be both cosmopolitan and diasporic? This article juxtaposes published memoirs with material from ethnographic research in order to analyse the discursive frameworks through which Vietnamese Americans of the 1.5 generation negotiate both diasporic imaginaries and cosmopolitan aspirations. The collective memories of the Vietnam War that circulate in the Vietnamese American diaspora place obstacles in the path of a younger generation who aspire to be cosmopolitans, but are entangled in memories of the trauma and dislocation of the war and must also respond to a pervasive ideology of anti-communism, which is a form of anti-cosmopolitanism, among the first generation. This case study points to the ways in which our current scholarly efforts to expand ideas of both diaspora and cosmopolitanism to include a variety of positions and aspirations can benefit from more attention to the modes of cultural expression produced by the populations we study.

‘De El Costumbre Al Rock’: Rock Indígena and Being Indigenous in 21st-Century México

This article centers on the music production of Hamac Caziim (Punk-Rock Comcáac) and Sak Tzevul (Rock Tzotzil), and how their music forms part of a larger project that re-conceptualizes what it means to be indigenous in México in the 21st century. Utilizing online archival research and interviews with the members of Hamac Caziim and government officials, notions of what it means to be a young indigenous person in the 21st century in México are explored. With Hamac Caziim and Sak Tzevul as prime examples, this article delineates the ways in which contemporary indigenous musical production has been theorized in México as well as in other parts of the world with regards to indigenous rock. Ideas of indigenous cosmopolitanism and indigenous modernity are discussed as a way to understand current conceptualization of indigeneity in the 21st century. The idea of customization may provide an alternative view on current performances of indigenous identity.

Books, bodies, and bronzes: comparing sites of global citizenship creation

This volume explores music competitions, religious movements, fashion magazines, copyright policy and overseas university campuses, among others, as potential sites for the generation and spread of cosmopolitan ideas, competencies and projects. Our contributors focus on how and when that happens, in what combinations, and what difference it makes when aspects of cosmopolitanism are disseminated at music competitions, UNESCO World Heritage sites, or through membership in elite social clubs. They embed the production and dissemination of cosmopolitanism within cultural and institutional contexts, thereby bringing to light not just the classroom, editorial room and stage, but the complex, power-laden set of organizational arrangements that undergird them and the geopolitical context within which they take shape.

Why do citizens want the UN to decide? Cosmopolitan ideas, particularism and global authority

Why do citizens support or reject the idea of global authority? The article addresses this question by examining individual attitudes about UN authority in a comparative perspective. Using data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (2005–2007), the analysis shows that global public support for UN authority largely depends on a cosmopolitan understanding of global interdependence and moral universalism. However, the analysis of contextual variables also suggests that a “particularist” calculus of national costs and benefits explains citizens’ support for (and rejection of) UN authority to a significant extent. Most remarkably, citizens of powerful states favor UN authority much more than do those from weaker countries – a possible indication that UN authority is expected to further privilege the former to the disadvantage of the latter.

Rethinking integration in contemporary Spanish film: convivencia and the cosmopolitan outlook in Chus Gutiérrez's Retorno a Hansala (2008)

Integration is often, implicitly or otherwise, posited as a social good to be aspired to in contemporary Spanish films about immigration and wider European debates on this topic. Integration, however, can be a problematic notion which tends to insist more on the adjustments of the incoming “others” to a pre-existing common culture than on the necessity of the “host” to adapt. This article explores the extent to which Chus Gutiérrez's 2008 film, Retorno a Hansala, proffers a new paradigm for integration by having the action focus on a white Spanish male's “migration” to North Africa which places him in a “contact zone” outside Spanish borders. It reads this border crossing in the light of current politics shaping the representations of North African Muslim immigrants and also with attention to Spain's historical ties with, and ambivalent stance towards, its Arab and Islamic heritage. Understanding this web of connections as encapsulated within the film's overarching metaphor of “return,” this article dwells on the term's multiple resonances and their relationship to present-day issues of integration, including historical convivencia and contemporary ideas of cosmopolitanism that stress solidarity with others regardless of borders and other divisive distinctions.

Welcoming the World? Hospitality, Homonationalism, and the London 2012 Olympics

AbstractIn an era of intense “entrepreneurial” city marketing, overt attempts to court LGBT consumers and investors have been made not solely through the promotion of lesbian and gay arts festivals, pride celebrations and “specialised” cultural events, but also through “mainstream” mega‐events. This paper explores this with reference to London's 2012 Olympics, an event which welcomed LGBT spectators, volunteers and participants through a series of initiatives proclaiming the Games as distinctively “gay friendly”. Considering this in the light of queer critiques—particularly those concerning homonationalism—we argue that this marketing of London as sexually diverse relied on the effacement of certain sexual practices and spaces not easily accommodated within normative, Western models of sexual citizenship, tolerance and equality. In conclusion, it is argued that the Olympics represented a moment when particular ideas of sexual cosmopolitanism were deployed to regulate, order and normalise the variegated sexual landscapes of a world city.

Protecting the Other: Considering the process and practice of cosmopolitanism

The War on Terror has posed a difficult challenge for proponents of cosmopolitanism, through its invocation of cosmopolitan-like discourse, focused on emancipation, democracy promotion and the protection of human rights, in support of the controversial practices of warfighting and counterinsurgency, which sit uneasily with a cosmopolitan ethical position. More recently, the 2011 intervention in Libya has again highlighted the persistence of this militarized form of cosmopolitan practice with very limited reflection on the congruence between rhetoric and appropriate practice. This article argues that these contradictions should not necessitate a rejection of cosmopolitanism, but rather a critical rethinking of how cosmopolitan-informed policies are played out in practice. Proponents of cosmopolitanism must be aware that they do not have a monopoly on the use of cosmopolitan discourse and that it can be, and has been, used to legitimate practices which have not reflected what cosmopolitan scholars may have envisaged in theory. To address this, the article advances an idea of practical cosmopolitanism, one which is self-reflective, critically attuned to the practice of cosmopolitanism and focused on the experience of cosmopolitan-informed policies by the intended beneficiaries.

Fairness through regulation? Reflections on a cosmopolitan approach to global finance

In the aftermath of the last financial crisis a strong message prevails that 'something' has to be changed in the manner global finance is governed. What exactly this 'something' entails and what could constitute the 'common ground' of anticipated change is more difficult to determine. Many envisage future improvements of global financial governance by evoking deliberative democracy, political equality and cosmopolitanism. As financial regulation is the main instrument through which global finance is shaped and governed nowadays, these principles should then be transmitted to regulatory arrangements. This paper focuses on a new conceptual approach to regulatory and governance issues in global finance, by employing the philosophical idea of cosmopolitanism. It argues that although as a concept, cosmopolitanism cannot mitigate all the flaws attributed to contemporary finance, its development and extension to international financial regulation that is promulgated by institutions of the global financial system, would represent a worthwhile endeavour in making global finance more accountable and just in the eyes of many.

Imperfect Cosmopolis: Studies in the History of International Legal Theory and Cosmopolitan Ideas. By GEORGCAVALLAR. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 209 p. £27.99 (pb). ISBN: 978‐0‐7083‐2382‐3.

Journal for Eighteenth-Century StudiesVolume 36, Issue 4 p. 605-606 Book Review Imperfect Cosmopolis: Studies in the History of International Legal Theory and Cosmopolitan Ideas. By CAVALLAR, GEORG. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 209 p. £27.99 (pb). ISBN: 978-0-7083-2382-3. MICHAEL HOELZL, MICHAEL HOELZL University of ManchesterSearch for more papers by this author MICHAEL HOELZL, MICHAEL HOELZL University of ManchesterSearch for more papers by this author First published: 13 November 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12042Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume36, Issue4Special Issue: The Cultural Production of Natural Knowledge. Guest edited by Sarah Easterby-Smith and Emily SeniorDecember 2013Pages 605-606 RelatedInformation

Albert Camus and Rebellious Cosmopolitanism in a Divided Worlda

Albert Camus's existential thinking has been the object of renewed interest over the past decade. Political theorists have looked to his work to shed light on the contradictions and violence of modernity and the dynamics of postcolonial justice. This article contends that Camus's account of the modern human condition provides a means of engaging critically with one of the most compelling ideas linked to thinking about global politics today: cosmopolitanism. By developing Camus's position on absurdity and rebellion, it suggests that the idea of cosmopolitanism should be situated in a post-foundationalist and post-teleological nexus to prevent it becoming a new political ideology of immutable truth. In order to make this argument, the article focuses on how Camus's thinking supports a rebellious cosmopolitan disposition towards global transformations. In so doing, it shows that cosmopolitanism must strive against the injustices of a deeply divided world, yet at the same time accept theoretical, factual and moral limits on its vision and actions.

Imperfect Cosmopolis: Studies in the History of International Legal Theory and Cosmopolitan Ideas, Georg Cavallar, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011, pp. 209.

Imperfect Cosmopolis: Studies in the History of International Legal Theory and Cosmopolitan Ideas, Georg Cavallar, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011, pp. 209.

Cosmopolitan tensions: religious diversity in an Australian university

This paper examines ideas of cosmopolitanism, particularly social theorists’ interests in a cosmopolitan ‘disposition’, to consider how religiously diverse students experience campus life in a multi-faith Australian university. We draw on data from focus-group interviews conducted with students from Muslim, Christian, Spiritual, and Atheist student-groups to contribute empirical insights into theoretical debates about cosmopolitanism. We show how students understand religious relations in a university campus in multiple ways; moving back and forth between relations of religious openness and tension in different institutional scenarios. In light of these findings, we reflect on the possibilities of fostering ‘cosmopolitan religiosity’ in higher-education settings and demonstrate the limits of a liberal multicultural approach to religious diversity.

From meat and potatoes to “real-deal” rotis: Exploring everyday culinary cosmopolitanism

The purpose of this article is to broaden our understanding of the lived experience of cosmopolitanism and to expand the notion of multiple everyday cosmopolitanisms. Drawing from 40 semi-structured interviews with 20 families living in Toronto and Vancouver, we propose examining cosmopolitanism as a type of cultural repertoire that contains a range of cosmopolitan eating practices. Based on an in-depth reading of these interviews, we map out three modes of cosmopolitan consumption: a knowledge-focussed connoisseur mode, a pragmatic mode centred in lived experiences and social connections, and a tentative mode of engagement with cosmopolitan culture and cuisine. This research questions the idea of cosmopolitanism as a homogenous cultural practice or as a purely elite phenomenon. At the same time, we also demonstrate how cultural and economic capital are concentrated in and associated with certain cosmopolitan cultural styles and practices.

The idea of cosmopolitanism in Korea's national curriculum

The idea of cosmopolitanism is emerging as an explicit aim of the Korean educational system. Over the course of its 5,000-year history, Korea has been characterized by a largely homogeneous population. In recent years, however, it has begun to face the challenges of a multicultural society, and thus the notion of cosmopolitanism plays an important role in providing a vision for the reinterpretation of Korean identity. The purpose of this study is to explore how cosmopolitan perspectives have been reflected in recent changes to the Korean national curriculum. To achieve this aim, the study analyses national curriculum documents put in place after the mid-1990s, when great debates over educational reform emerged in the wake of globalization. In particular, the study focuses on two aspects of the manifestation of cosmopolitan perspectives: the policies associated with the Korean national curriculum, and the contents of the social studies and moral education curricula. The study concludes with a discussion of the conflicts surrounding the idea of cosmopolitanism in the Korean national curriculum.