A cosmopolitan perspective seeks to counter modern nationalism’s tendency to link cultures and identities to specific places by focusing on the world as a whole rather than on an enclave within it. It may be seen to possess, in other words, the potential for offering an ethics for globalization. Yet, precisely because so many of the crucial relationships that shape the forces of globalization are indirect, these are not easily reducible to interpersonal norms. The problem with cosmopolitanism, as Craig Calhoun argues, lies in its suggestion that it is an attitude that can be assumed without altering the political or economic structures which lie outside of the individual. What kind of purchase, then, do cosmopolitan theories have on the contemporary world?
This course seeks to introduce students to some of the major strands in the debate on cosmopolitanism, how these tend to draw upon a series of other closely related forces that are shaping the world: Where does cosmopolitan thinking stand in relation to the spectre of resurgent nationalism we are seeing unfold around us today? Does cosmopolitanism always work in conjunction with globalization? Can it offer us an ethic of living in a multicultural society? What understandings of cosmopolitanism might help us negotiate a postcolonial future? Drawing on a selection of readings from a range of disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, politics, history, sociology, and literature, the course seeks to promote a layered understanding of a conceptual perspective whose capacity for understanding, critiquing and negotiating the world in which we live today is beginning to be questioned.
- Kursleiter:in: Annabell Fender
- Kursleiter:in: Dr. Ira Raja