Conceiving Cosmopolitanism

Theory, Context, and Practice

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen

A comprehensive, cross-disciplinary book
Topical subject
Written by eminent and internationally renowned scholars from around the world
The authors are representative of many cultural backgrounds

Conceiving Cosmopolitanism

Theory, Context, and Practice

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen

Description

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.

Conceiving Cosmopolitanism

Theory, Context, and Practice

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen

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

Conceiving Cosmopolitanism

Theory, Context, and Practice

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen

Author Information

Steven Vertovec, Linacre College, University of Oxford, and Robin Cohen, University of Warwick and University of Cape Town

Contributors:

Rainer Bauböck is a political scientist at the Austrian Academy of Science.
Ulrich Beck is Professor of Sociology at the University of Munich, and the British journal of Sociology Professor at the London School of Economics.
Chan Kwok Bun teaches at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.
Ayse Caglar is a Turkish-born scholar working and publishing in Germany, trained in Anthropology at McGill University.
Craig Calhoun is Professor of Sociology and History at the New York University and President of the US Social Science Research Council.
Robert Fine is Reader in Sociology at the University of Warwick.
Stuart Hall is one of Britain's foremost public intellectuals.
David Held is Graham Walls Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics.
Daniel Hiebert is a social geographer at the University of British Columbia.
David A. Hollinger is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkley.
Mary Kaldor is Director of the Programme on Global Civil Society at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London Scholl of Economics.
Andrew Linklater is Woodward Wilson Professor of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Richard Sennett teaches at the London School of Economics and was Professor of Sociology at New York University.
John Tomlinson is Professor of Cultural Sociology and the Director of the Centre for Research in International Communication and Culture (CRICC), Nottingham Trent University.
Peter Van der Veer is Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Amsterdam and Director of Research Centre on Religion and Society.
Sami Zubaida teaches in the Politics and Sociology Department at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Conceiving Cosmopolitanism

Theory, Context, and Practice

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen

Reviews and Awards

"Conceiving Cosmopolitanism is one of the better texts to consult in search of answers ... some outstanding contemporary figures have contributed essays to the collection." - Sociology

"The value of Conceiving Cosmopolitanism lies in this acute awareness amongst the contributors that while cosmopolitanism may furnish some of the tools for a new framework for a post-national global era, it suffers from potentially crippling weaknesses." - Sociology