Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory, Context, and Practice

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.

1: Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen: Introduction: conceiving cosmopolitanism, PART 1 WINDOWS ON COSMOPOLITANISM, 2: Stuart Hall: Political belonging in a world of multiple identities, 3: Sami Zubaida: Middle Eastern experiences of cosmopolitanism, 4: Richard Sennett: Cosmopolitanism and the social experience of cities, 5: David Held: Building cosmopolitanism for another age, PART 2 THEORIES OF COSMOPOLITANISM, 6: Ulrich Beck: The cosmopolitan perspective: sociology in the second age of modernity, 7: Craig Calhoun: The class consciousness of frequent travellers: towards a critique of actually existing cosmopolitanism, 8: Rainer Baubock: Political community beyond the sovereign state, supranational federalism and transnational minorities, 9: Robert Fine and Robin Cohen: Four cosmopolitanism moments, PART 3 CONTEXTS OF COSMOPOLITANISM, 10: Peter Van der Veer: Colonial cosmopolitanism, 11: Ayse Caglar: Media corporatism and cosmopolitanism, 12: Chan Kwok Bun: Both sides now: culture contact, hybridisation and cosmopolitanism, 13: Daniel Hiebert: Cosmopolitanism at the local level: the development of transnational neighbourhoods, PART 4 PRACTICES OF COSMOPOLITANISM, 14: David A. Hollinger: Not universalists, not pluralists: the new cosmopolitans find their own way, 15: John Tomlinson: Interests and identities in cosmopolitan politics, 16: Andrew Linklater: Cosmopolitan harm conventions, 17: Mary Kaldor: Cosmopolitanism and organised violence

Robin Cohen is Dean of Humanities at the University of Cape Town and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Steve Vertovec is Director of the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Research Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg), Berlin.