Cosmopolitan Society Research Articles

Cosmopolitan Society and its Enemies

Since the end of the Cold War, the world has not abandoned ‘the dream of cosmopolitan peace’ (Alexander 2005). The adjective ‘cosmopolitan’ refers to the political and philosophical concept that all human beings are members of a single community. In the 21st century, however, the world faces a stark reality that is far from this vision, one which is consumed by an epidemic of social inequality and global injustice. The refugee crisis, climate injustice, racism, nationalism, terrorism, and other challenges are rooted in serious, untreated historical traumata which ultimately can lead to a collective form of amnesia related to these respective histories. I argue that to build a resilient, cosmopolitan society requires giving voice and expression to the narratives of victims of perpetration. And, equally important is to disclose the hidden intention in the historical narratives voiced by perpetrators. Through the exploration of these narratives, I argue, citizens will begin to wake up from their historical amnesia.

Performing Distinction in Big Banana: Culture at the Margins of Visibility

Central American writers have perceptively engaged with the concept of world literature from their minor positionality. For instance, as implied in the mocking undertone of its title, Roberto Quesada’s Big Banana (2000) deals with being at the edge of the periphery, following a Honduran migrant in the Latin American community in New York. Quesada explores how the protagonist channels his “deseo de mundo”, to use Mariano Siskind’s words, into a strategy of performing distinction to carve out a place for himself in a cosmopolitan society. Compounding “banana republic”—an expression coined by O. Henry, inspired by Honduras—with “The Big Apple”, Big Banana’s title underscores the book’s play with cultural registers and national and worldly identities. The growing scholarship on Central American and U.S. Central American literature has analyzed the novel through the lens of coloniality, the limits of solidarity, the experience of the Central American diaspora, and as “denuncia social”. My article instead traces how cultural productions acquire different valences each time they cross the center–periphery border in the performance of distinction that Big Banana and its protagonist carry out in response to their doubly peripheral position. In other words, this essay is concerned with the novel’s problematic instrumentalization of Western hegemonic culture—both highbrow and commercial popular culture—to make claims of worldliness and carve a space for itself in world literary circuits.

‘Native’ Vladivostok vs. ‘Alien’ Dal’nii – the Pacific Porto-Franco and the Search for ‘Russian Interests’ in the Far East (1901–1904)

ABSTRACT This article examines the 1901–1904 discussions about free trade in the Priamur region and the territories in Chinese Manchuria leased to the Russian Empire. The discussions are placed in the contexts of nationalising empire, Russian imperialism, and cosmopolitan society of the globalised free port of Vladivostok. The piece traces the place of ideas about free trade in the social and political imagination of contemporaries in the Priamur region to show how these images were challenged by imperial expansion in Manchuria. It also analyses the rhetorical strategies used by regional actors to re-negotiate the borders of economic and political expansion, as well as the internal and external comparisons they made. The article demonstrates how debates about free trade in the Russian Far East offer deeper insight into how ideas about free trade and free ports as institutions affected not only the economic but social and political transformations in the late imperial period.

Interrogating the Normative Tradition of Ukukhuzela (court praises) in the Age of Rape Culture in a Cosmopolitan Society: Insights from Zulu Students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Interrogating the Normative Tradition of Ukukhuzela (court praises) in the Age of Rape Culture in a Cosmopolitan Society: Insights from Zulu Students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Perilaku Identitas Kosmopolitan dalam Novel The Star and I Karya Ilana Tan

Literary works are often seen as a reflection of society in the era in which and when the work was produced. The Star and I novel by Ilana Tan is a literary work that reflects the life of cosmopolitan society in the current era of globalization. Cosmopolitan identity has become an increasingly popular topic in the humanities and literature. This paper aims to analyze how cosmopolitan identity behavior is reflected in the novel The Star and I by Ilana Tan. This type of research is literary research using a qualitative approach and descriptive method. In this analysis, the novel The Star and I by Ilana Tan is chosen as the object of research because this novel describes a complex and pluralistic life that can reflect a cosmopolitan identity. The results of this study show how the concept of cosmopolitan identity is represented by the characters in the novel and how these characters interact with their environment. The results also show that cosmopolitan identity in the novel can be understood through characters who are able to navigate cultural differences and build relationships with people from different backgrounds. Cosmopolitan identity is also reflected in the way the characters articulate their thoughts, feelings and behaviors about identity and nationality. It is hoped that this paper can contribute to researchers and observers of literature in understanding how cosmopolitan identity is reflected in literary works and how literary works can play a role in promoting an understanding of cosmopolitanism in an increasingly globalized society.

El turismo alternativo como impulsor del cosmpolitismo

Cosmopolitanism is considered to be a way of life associated with travellers who are able to reach out to other societies. This approach produces greater tolerance, empathy, awareness and global belonging. This allows us to understand the world’s problems (environmental, economic, social) as our own and forces us to reflect on the need to become directly involved. But in order to achieve a cosmopolitan world, it is nec‑ essary to promote mechanisms. In this sense, tourism, which inevitably involves the movement of people, is an important driver of change. Obviously not just any form of tourism, but that which achieves a symbiotic relationship between visitor and host community. This is why alternative tourism should be encouraged as an instrument of cosmopolitanism. The aim then is to reflect on the benefits of developing a cosmopolitan society and how alternative tourism could contribute to this philosophy of life.

Kosmopolitanisme Islam Dalam Indikator Moderasi Beragama Di Indonesia

The mainstreaming of religious moderation is not always responded positively by religious people in Indonesia. For example, there is a bad stigma that views the mainstreaming as religious liberalization. This research aims to identify the existence of cosmopolitan Islamic values in the indicators of religious moderation formulated by the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia. This qualitative research in the form of a literature study uses a normative-philosophical approach. The cosmopolitan Islamic paradigm initiated by Abdurrahman Wahid became an analytical theory in the core discussion. This research shows that there are dimensions of cosmopolitan Islamic values in four indicators of religious moderation in Indonesia. First, the value of Islamic universalism in indicators of tolerance and anti-radicalism. This can be seen from the mainstreaming of religious moderation which emphasizes the formation of moderate Muslim religious understandings and attitudes in respecting social plurality and human values. Second, the value of Islamic pribumization in indicators of national commitment and accommodating to local wisdom. This can be seen from the mainstreaming of religious moderation which emphasizes the formation of moderate Islamic religious understanding and social attitudes in maintaining nationalism and wisdom of local traditions that do not violate Islamic teachings. The theoretical implications of this study show that there is a need for moderate understanding and social attitudes of Muslim diversity in the life of a cosmopolitan society. The limitations of this research have not examined the strategy of Pesantren as a subculture in the cosmopolitan Islamic paradigm initiated by Abdurrahman Wahid, namely related to the internalization of cosmopolitan Islamic values in order to form understanding and social attitudes of moderate diversity for Muslims in Indonesia.

Religion and Cosmopolitan Society: Religious Conflict Settlement based on Legal Culture

Conflicts occur when people believe that they are different from others and conflict in religion is no different. Religious conflicts in Poso and conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites in East Java have the effects of conflict, including protracted social friction, which prevents the development of a cohesive community. This research uses a socio-legal approach, where the study of law combines the approach of legal and social sciences. Establishing a way to settle religious conflicts is done by drawing up a legal basis for a settlement that accommodates human rights and democracy, emphasizing horizontal relations between religious communities. The existence of a legal culture becomes a meeting point for religious views, namely, prioritizing human rights. So, in the future, resolving conflicts based on legal culture in a cosmopolitan society is recommended.

Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature

Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature

First generation English language learners in post-Covid rural India: Situation and Aspirations

Young learners from all over the world today are facing indescribable problems to continue with their basic formal learning due to Covid Lockdown and the closure of schools for more than a year. The rural Indian scenario is more than horrible. Government schools are the only source and hope of learning language properly in rural India. Learning English along with any of the vernacular languages properly boosts both the confidence and acceptability in the job sector. Good communication in English is a necessary criterion in a cosmopolitan society. But English is not taught as a language but as a subject in most of the government schools. English language teachers are not properly trained to teach English language as a medium of communication. After completing class 12 exams, only a few students can confidently communicate in English. Sadly, even after passing colleges, the percentage of English speakers and communicators is barely hopeful. And it is not a post-Covid scenario but pre-Covid one. The present paper tries to realize the situations of the first generation Young English learners in rural government schools; the challenges that they face during learning this so called foreign but otherwise the official language of India, the probable solutions to ease out the situations in the post-Covid scenario and how rural India can emerge as a outstanding human resource that can interact in English language fluently and grow using the tools of mobile telecommunication and information technology if the government schools are properly backed and supported digitally after the possible implementation of NEP-2020 and Post-Covid restructuring of education system.

Interrogating Cosmopolitanism and The Stranger in Tendai Huchu’s The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician (2015)

This article analyses Tendai Huchu’s novel The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician (2015) in the light of cosmopolitan theory, drawing from Ulrich Beck’s conceptualisation of the cosmopolitan society and Vince Marotta’s notion of the figure of the cosmopolitan stranger. Urban space theory and Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis is also discussed. This work focuses on the main characters in the novel in order to question the validity of some of the characteristics attributed to the cosmopolitan stranger, principally their ability to transcend standpoint epistemologies. It addresses the characters’ common struggle to re-evaluate their identity in the new neoliberal capitalist context of Edinburgh in which they find themselves, as well as their search for belonging in the new community and the creation of a new home. The article also explores the potential of walking the city as a mechanism to reconcile identity conflicts and respond to the anxiety that the city generates —connecting internal time, memories and the body with external time and space— and contrasts it with the experience of running. It is contended that the novel resists the imposition of a definite meaning, portraying the cosmopolitan strangers as nuanced individuals, while also exploring the possibility of failure of the cosmopolitan stranger.

Produk Fashion Bagi Masyarakat Urban Indonesia Dengan Pemanfaatan Rempah Nusantara

Indonesia is an agricultural country known for its rich natural resources, one of which is spices. Spices are commodities that have millions of benefits for human life, even spices can affect political, economic, and socio- culturalconditions on a global scale. Urban communities who come from various ethnicities to urban spaces have now realized that they still have elements of local wisdom that enrich the existence of urban communities towards a global and cosmopolitan society. The role of urban fashion by using clothes is a form of concern for cultural preservation. The use of natural fibers as a substitute for synthetic fibers in one of the wise steps in increasing the economic value of natural fibers considering the limitations of non-renewable natural resource. One of the natural sources used is fiber from citronella spice waste. How to use spice waste fiber is implemented for fashion products, so the researchers conducted a study in the utilization of citronella spice waste through qualitative research methods, art base research and semiotics by conducting a study of fiber morphology identification (stems and leaves) from spice waste. This study looks at the utilization of archipelago’s spice waste as a fashion product. The purpose of this research study is examined spices for fashion products. Reduce the impact of greenhouse gas production by managing spice waste, and empowering communities to realize sustainable development by managing spice waste into a resource that has benefits so that spice waste can be used as sustainable fashion.

Creole Ecologies, Feral Customs: A Coevolutionary History of Buccaneering in Hispaniola During the Seventeenth Century

As the European colonization of the Americas progressed through territorial occupation and economic exploitation, the motley Atlantic society that emerged from the Columbian Exchange also led to unprecedented social experiments. This article analyzes the consolidation of buccaneers’ society in the island of Hispaniola during the first half of the seventeenth century. Adopting the methodological tools of environmental history – with a particular emphasis on coevolutionary history and neo-materialism – it assesses how feral European-borne animal species such as feral cattle and pigs played a central role in the creation of this cosmopolitan society living at margins of western civilization. The result was a coevolutionary ecological niche built upon the pounding heart of the creole Caribbean environment of Hispaniola, one the first Spanish settlements in the Americas. After reconstructing their historical trajectory in relation to feral animal species, it also analyzes the historical causes that led to the demise of buccaneers and to the emergence of the plantation complex. This article draws from a vast array of primary sources produced by explorers from several European nations and former buccaneers as well as from scholarly publications in environmental history, Caribbean history and the history of European colonialism.

1 - Metissage in Nineteenth Century Senegal: Hybrid Identity and French Colonialism in a West African Town

This article argues that Saint-Louis’ peculiarity matched neither the identity of African societies of the interior nor that of metropolitan France. Nor was it identical to notions of sychretism or creolisation. On the contrary, this city gave birth to a cosmopolitan society with different national, ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities comparatively influenced as they were by their relation- ships with States and societies of the Senegal Valley region, and the trans- Atlantic trade. The article offers a re-reading of accounts by European travel- lers and officials combined with study of archival records, publications such as the Moniteur du Senegal, private papers and portrait photographs. Based on extensive fieldwork, the article sheds light on an overlooked aspect of African history and engages modern Atlantic and French colonial history by suggesting that these locations were not solely formed by elite uropean actors but by local inhabitants of the colonies and remote outposts.

Across Nations and Rivers: Metaphors of Multi-Culturalism in Jeet Thayil’s Poetry

Jeet Thayil allocates attention in revealing his cultural ties with America and India through metaphors pertaining to iconic geographical places in his poetry. He communicates his multi-cultural identity symbolically through metaphors of rivers which are analogous to flexible identities in today’s cosmopolitan society. In his poetry, transnational places and the weather of such places seem to structure his memories and thereby create a template for his multi-cultural identity. This paper interprets the metaphors related to rivers symbolizing a fluid multi-cultural identity of the poet through a study of his selected poems. It also configures the ecological and cultural factors for such metaphorical representations by the poet.

Narratives of success: enabling all students to excel in the global world

ABSTRACT This article aims to unfold the narratives of success in the Modern, cosmopolitan society within transnational discourses. The narratives of success entail utopian desires of enabling “all” students to potentially become profitable for the economy and for themselves – accountable through mathematics proficiency. This reveals transnational desires with which all students are expected to excel in PISA, no matter their differences as humans and living conditions. Within this rhetoric, students become the only ones responsible for their own success and for their own failure.

Review: Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present

Review: <i>Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present</i>

Mauritians and Latter-Day Saints: Multicultural Oral Histories of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints within “The Rainbow Nation”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged within the Mauritian landscape in the early 1980s after the arrival of foreign missionary work. With a population of Indian, African, Chinese, French heritage, and other mixed ethnicities, Mauritius celebrates multiculturalism, with many calling it the “rainbow nation”. Religiously, Hinduism dominates the scene on the island, followed by Christianity (with Catholicism as the majority); the small remainder of the population observes Islam or Buddhism. Although Mauritian society equally embraces people from these ethnic groups, it also has historically marginalized communities who represent a “hybrid” of the mentioned demographic groups. This article, based on ethnographic research, explores the experiences of Mauritian Latter-day Saints as they navigate the challenges and implications of membership in Mormonism. Specifically, it focuses on how US-based Mormonism has come to embrace the cultural heritage of people from the various diaspora and how Mauritian Latter-day Saints perceive their own belonging and space-making within an American born religion. This case study presents how the local and intersecting adaptations of language, race, and local leadership within a cosmopolitan society such as Mauritius have led to the partial hybridization of the Church into the hegemony of ethnic communities within Mauritian Latter-day Saint practices. These merging of cultures and world views prompts both positive and challenging religious experiences for Mauritian Church members. This article illustrates the implications and pressures of the Church trying to globalize its faith base while adapting its traditionally Anglocentric approaches to religious practices to multiracial, multicultural cosmopolitan communities such as Mauritius.

CROSS-BORDER IDENTITY AS A DAILY RESISTANCE TACTIC OF COSMOPOLITANISM IN A TIME OF GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY: GORIZIA-NOVA GORICA GO BORDERLESS

Ulrich Beck represented cosmopolitan society as overcoming the nation-states as the container of the respective civil societies. In order to understand these profound changes, sociology itself appears inadequate, populated as it is by definitions that Beck considers as zombie concepts: “the conceptual apparatus of the sociology of modernity appears in crisis because it is inadequate to describe the situation of societies in which the borders of the nation-states that contained them have dissolved in an extremely rapid period. Rather than a definitive departure from that sociology, Beck’s invitation to the international community of sociologists is to recalibrate their concepts in a cosmopolitan perspective» (Porcelli 2005: 8). The social contract, which was at the base of the construction of what Anderson defined the imagined communities, sanctioned the renunciation by the populations of part of their prerogatives of freedom favouring the security guaranteed by the sovereign power. The present global health emergency seems to have proposed the same social pact: more security and less freedom, especially people segregated within the resurging nation-states by new borders and walls. The remaining residue of globalisation is its economic-financial globalism. Ethnographic analysis along border areas reveals a consolidated cross-border identity experienced in people’s everyday lives as a tactic of resistance against the erection of new self-containment barriers. This contribution aims to analyse the salient aspects of this phenomenon in the city of Gorizia, which for decades has constituted an integrated metropolitan area of the Italian and Slovenian zones, defining a specific cross-border identity shared by both Italian and Slovenian citizens. This identity has not given way in front of the walls that have been restored in recent months in order to contain the contagion and therefore could represent what de Certeau defined as a tactic of resistance that in the present case bears witness to the invention of an increasingly cosmopolitan daily life. In this respect, the main points of the project book submitted for the candidacy of Gorizia-Nova Gorica as European Capital of Culture 2025 will be examined. The title of the bid book itself specifies the cosmopolitan identity of the area under analysis: “Go borderless”.

The rock-cut churches of Lalibela and the cave church of Washa Mika'el: troglodytism and the Christianisation of the Ethiopian Highlands

The monolithic churches of Lalibela are commonly regarded as evidence for the shift of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia from Aksum to the Ethiopian Highlands during the thirteenth century AD. Recent research, however, has shown that the rock-cut churches were not createdex nihilo.New archaeological evidence has emerged for an earlier, local troglodytic culture, particularly at Washa Mika'el, further illuminating the cosmopolitan society that existed in medieval Ethiopia. This article considers the role played by this troglodytic culture in the Christianisation of the Ethiopian Highlands and how it attests continuity with its predecessors, especially in the way that sculpted decor are perpetuated and transformed in the frame of a new religious background.