Thinking Differently About Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism and relevant notions are widely discussed in philosophy of education and educational studies more generally. There is a vast literature on the topic that often invites conceptual discussion and requires some work in the direction of crucial clarifications. Thinking Differently About Cosmopolitanism argues that a new conception of cosmopolitanism is needed and addresses this need by formulating a conception of cosmopolitanism as an "eccentric" ethico-political ideal. Such cosmopolitanism is eccentric in the sense that it decenters the self, it cultivates centrifugal virtues, and it questions the concern for the globally enriched self. In this book, Papastephanou lays the foundation for a more refined conception of the topic, and provides a fruitful interdisciplinary discussion of its relation to globalization, Eurocentricism, developmentalism, and modernity.

Cosmopolitanism and relevant notions are widely discussed in philosophy of education and educational studies more generally. There is a vast literature on the topic that often invites conceptual discussion and requires some work in the direction of crucial clarifications. Thinking Differently About Cosmopolitanism argues that a new conception of cosmopolitanism is needed and addresses this need by formulating a conception of cosmopolitanism as an "eccentric" ethico-political ideal. Such cosmopolitanism is eccentric in the sense that it decenters the self, it cultivates centrifugal virtues, and it questions the concern for the globally enriched self. In this book, Papastephanou lays the foundation for a more refined conception of the topic, and provides a fruitful interdisciplinary discussion of its relation to globalization, Eurocentricism, developmentalism, and modernity.

Globalization has been contested in recent times. Among the critical perspectives is cosmopolitanism. Yet, with the exception of normative theory, international relations as a field has ignored cosmopolitan thinking. This book redresses this gap and develops a dialogue between cosmopolitanism and international relations. The dialogue is structured around three debates between non-universalist theories of international relations and contemporary cosmopolitan thought. The theories chosen are realism, (post-)Marxism and postmodernism. All three criticize liberalism in the international domain, and, therefore, cosmopolitanism as an offshoot of liberalism. In the light of each school's respective critique of universalism, the book suggests both the importance and difficulty of the cosmopolitan perspective in the contemporary world. Beardsworth emphasizes the need for global leadership at nation-state level, re-embedding of the world economy, a cosmopolitan politics of the lesser violence, and cosmopolitan political judgement. He also suggests research agendas to situate further contemporary cosmopolitanism in international relations theory. This book will appeal to all students of political theory and international relations, especially those who are seeking more articulation of the main issues between cosmopolitanism and its critics in international relations.

Winner of the 2013 American Educational Studies Association's 2013 Critics Choice Award! Teachers the world over are seeking creative ways to respond to the problems and possibilities generated by globalization. Many of them work with children and youth from increasingly varied backgrounds, with diverse needs and capabilities. Others work with homogeneous populations and yet are aware that their students will encounter many cultural changes in their lifetimes. All struggle with the contemporary conditions of teaching: endless top-down measures to manipulate what they do, rapid economic turns and inequality in supportive resources that affect their lives and those of their students, a torrent of media stimuli that distract educational focus, and growth as well as shifts in population. In The Teacher and the World, David T. Hansen provides teachers with a way to reconstruct their philosophies of education in light of these conditions. He describes an orientation toward education that can help them to address both the challenges and opportunities thrown their way by a globalized world. Hansen builds his approach around cosmopolitanism, an ancient idea with an ever-present and ever-beautiful meaning for educators. The idea pivots around educating for what the author calls reflective openness to new people and new ideas, and reflective loyalty toward local values, interests, and commitments. The book shows how this orientation applies to teachers at all levels of the system, from primary through university. Hansen deploys many examples to illustrate how its core value, a balance of reflective openness to the new and reflective loyalty to the known, can be cultivated while teaching different subjects in different kinds of settings. The author draws widely on the work of educators, scholars in the humanities and social sciences, novelists, artists, travellers and others from both the present and past, as well as from around the world. These diverse figures illuminate the promise in a cosmopolitan outlook on education in our time. In this pioneering book, Hansen has provided teachers, heads of school, teacher educators, researchers, and policy-makers a generative way to respond creatively to the pressure and the promise of a globalizing world.

Cosmopolitanism: Uses of the Idea offers an illuminating and dynamic account of an often confusing and widespread concept. Bringing together both historical and contemporary approaches to cosmopolitanism, as well as recognizing its multidimensional nature, Zlatko Skrbis and Ian Woodward manage to show the very essence of cosmopolitanism as a theoretical idea and cultural practice. Through an exploration of various social fields, such as media, identity and ethics, the book analyses the limits and possibilities of the cosmopolitan turn and explores the different contexts cosmopolitanism theory has been, and still is, applied to. Critical, diverse and engaging, the book successfully answers questions such as: How can we understand cosmopolitanism? What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and ethics? What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and identity? How do cosmopolitan networks come into being? How do we apply cosmopolitanism theory to contemporary, digital and mediated societies? This comprehensive and authoritative title is a must for anyone interested in cultural consumption, contemporary citizenship and identity construction. It will be especially useful for students and scholars within the fields of social theory, ethics, identity politics, cultural diversity and globalisation.

Cosmopolitanism is the idea of humanity as a single community or polis. Beyond particularities, all human beings (and in some versions of cosmopolitanism certain non-humans) are part of a community, and have responsibilities, rights and the power to decide on a common future. Ideas of cosmopolitan vary from the purely moral to cultural, social, legal, institutional, political, educational and economic cosmopolitanism, or combine some or all of these facets. All of these different perspectives try to establish the basis necessary to create a true cosmopolitanism. This book provides an introduction to the ideality and reality of cosmopolitanism, presenting it “in genesis” and giving a point of departure to students and readers of cosmopolitanism from which to analyse its various contemporary versions and proposals, providing an additional tool for their thinking and judgments in the face of a huge amount of literature today. It also offers a sense of emergency to those matters, requiring a prompt legal, political and economic response, for the continuing existence of the planet and for cosmopolitanism to continue as a viable proposal for humanity. As such, this volume will, ultimately, provoke the reader into a new spirit and action, that of cosmopolitanism.

Understanding the ancient and long sidelined concept of cosmopolitanism has suddenly found a fresh impetus and urgency. Globalization, international migration, multiculturalism and global social movements, as well as atrocities committed by those with narrow religious and ethnic identities, have led to reposing of two basic cosmopolitan questions: Can we ever live peacefully with one another? What do we share, collectively, as human beings? The term cosmopolitanism has attracted many understandings and uses over the years. Covering the global, national, social and personal levels of analysis, the authors consider the multiple meanings of the term in the past and in the present and develop new ways of conceiving cosmopolitanism. Through challenging old assumptions and advancing new analytical frameworks, the collection provides a full and representative set of views on the nature, definition and prospects of cosmopolitanism. Written by eminent scholars and publicly recognised intellectuals from a variety of cultural backgrounds, this book is the most comprehensive account of the theory and practice of cosmopolitanism yet attempted.

As the final installment of Public Culture’s Millennial Quartet, Cosmopolitanism assesses the pasts and possible futures of cosmopolitanism—or ways of thinking, feeling, and acting beyond one’s particular society. With contributions from distinguished scholars in disciplines such as literary studies, art history, South Asian studies, and anthropology, this volume recenters the history and theory of translocal political aspirations and cultural ideas from the usual Western vantage point to areas outside Europe, such as South Asia, China, and Africa. By examining new archives, proposing new theoretical formulations, and suggesting new possibilities of political practice, the contributors critically probe the concept of cosmopolitanism. On the one hand, cosmopolitanism may be taken to promise a form of supraregional political solidarity, but on the other, these essays argue, it may erode precisely those intimate cultural differences that derive their meaning from particular places and traditions. Given that most cosmopolitan political formations—from the Roman empire and European imperialism to contemporary globalization—have been coercive and unequal, can there be a noncoercive and egalitarian cosmopolitan politics? Finally, the volume asks whether cosmopolitanism can promise any universalism that is not the unwarranted generalization of some Western particular. Contributors. Ackbar Abbas, Arjun Appadurai, Homi K. Bhabha, T. K. Biaya, Carol A. Breckenridge, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Ousame Ndiaye Dago, Mamadou Diouf, Wu Hung, Walter D. Mignolo, Sheldon Pollock, Steven Randall

Considering the different traditions of cosmopolitan thinking and experimentation, this cutting edge volume examines the contemporary revival of cosmopolitanism as a response to the challenges of living in an interdependent world. Through a unique multidisciplinary approach, it takes the debate beyond the one-sided universalism of the Euro-American world and explores the multiverse of transformations which confront cosmopolitanism. The collection highlights central questions of cosmopolitan responsibility, global citizenship and justice as well as the importance of dialogue among civilizations, cultures, religions and traditions. Exploring the ethical and political dimensions of globalization, it outlines the pathways of going beyond cosmopolitanism by striving for a post-colonial cosmopolis characterized by global justice, trans-civilizational dialogues and dignity for all.

An indispensable collection that re-examines what it means to belong in the world. "Where are you from?" The word cosmopolitan was first used as a way of evading exactly this question, when Diogenes the Cynic declared himself a “kosmo-polites,” or citizen of the world. Cosmopolitanism displays two impulses—on the one hand, a detachment from one’s place of origin, while on the other, an assertion of membership in some larger, more compelling collective. Cosmopolitanisms works from the premise that there is more than one kind of cosmopolitanism, a plurality that insists cosmopolitanism can no longer stand as a single ideal against which all smaller loyalties and forms of belonging are judged. Rather, cosmopolitanism can be defined as one of many possible modes of life, thought, and sensibility that are produced when commitments and loyalties are multiple and overlapping. Featuring essays by major thinkers, including Homi Bhabha, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Thomas Bender, Leela Gandhi, Ato Quayson, and David Hollinger, among others, this collection asks what these plural cosmopolitanisms have in common, and how the cosmopolitanisms of the underprivileged might serve the ethical values and political causes that matter to their members. In addition to exploring the philosophy of Kant and the space of the city, this volume focuses on global justice, which asks what cosmopolitanism is good for, and on the global south, which has often been assumed to be an object of cosmopolitan scrutiny, not itself a source or origin of cosmopolitanism. This book gives a new meaning to belonging and its ground-breaking arguments call for deep and necessary discussion and discourse.