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Cosmopolitanism in a Wider Context: Conceptualizing Past and Pre-sent

An international conference in Stockholm, 24–26 November 2011

Book of Abstracts

Cosmopolitanism in a Wider Context—Book of Abstracts

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Call for Papers: Cosmopolitanism in a Wider Context Since the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War academic interest in cosmopolitanism has been grow-ing. Ironically, global tendencies outside academia have been characterized by increased emphases on particulars (religious, cultural, ethnic). Has cosmopolitanism turned out to be the ‘false consciousness’ of an essentially Occidentalist or capitalist globalization process, which contrary to its own ideals reproduces segregation and disrespect for human rights? Or is cosmopolitanism to be interpreted in the opposite way, as a historically-evolved possibility of overcoming xenophobia and antagonism? In order to approach these questions we need to re-think cosmopolitanism in its historical context. The aim of the conference is to present new perspectives and insights on a discourse rather dominated by ahistorical presumptions. The contextualization of cosmopolitanism will contribute with an understand-ing of its explicit and implicit meanings and its significance within contemporary political thought. Also in the quality of an analytical tool, cosmopolitanism is in need of further theory and research, as well as his-torical contextualization. In post-Communist scholarship, cosmopolitanism is often treated as a universal, in order to explain, criticize or legitimize processes of, or responses to, globalization. We try to look at it also as a historically contingent concept, both empirically and theoretically. An important question is how our perception of historical and contemporary cosmopolitanism has changed in the wake of the events of 1989. From the point of view of conceptual history, cosmopolitanism is treated as a controversial concept that dialectically indicates as well as constructs the world. Political concepts acquire new, sometimes irrecon-cilable, meanings, by virtue of the ways they are used in specific situations. Correspondingly, a conceptual practice can also re-define its contextual framework. During the period when discussions of cosmopolitan-ism have taken place, the understandings of concepts such as man, citizen, state, city, nation, sovereignty, politics, border, right, asylum, migration, Europe, humanity, have fluctuated. This is an important consid-eration when discussing contemporary problems of globalization from a ‘cosmopolitan’ perspective. How, when and why do pragmatic appropriations and semantic transformations occur? Cosmopolitanism has an important legacy in Western Enlightenment, with its implicit Eurocentrism and Occidentalism. Symptomatically, cosmopolitanism has been suggested as a source of identity for the Euro-pean Union. Political cosmopolitanism has its roots in the same Enlightenment, which saw the birth of the secularized and civilizing conception of Europe. The Eastern parts of Europe have since then functioned as a border concept, continuously reproducing a harmony creating (Western) Europe, in contrast to its alien and problematic shadow. Europe has traditionally been described as a universalistic civilization (the birthplace of Reason, Science, Human Rights), but has paradoxically been dependent upon old patterns of essentialist dichotomization. Behind Europe’s projections on its anti-democratic and traditionalist ‘oth-ers,’ there also reside neglected human rights problems, associated with marginalized groups within Europe. We welcome contributions on cosmopolitanism from historical disciplines (conceptual, intellectual, cul-tural, social, economic and general) but also from philosophy, literature, art, political science, sociology, anthropology, and studies on human rights, gender, postcolonialism, and religion. Organiser: Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University Coordinator: Kristian Petrov


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Abstracts Abstracts in alphabetical order, by (first) author’s last name.

Tatiana Artemyeva Professor, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, [email protected]

Citizens of the World: Identities of the Russian Nobility In the Russian language the term ‘Russian’ has two senses. ‘Russian’ may mean nationality or citizenship. For the Russian nobility the second meaning was more important than the first and determined it. The genealogical origins of the Russian nobility were international indeed. For example, Russian princes de-scended from the Scandinavian prince Rurik, the Lithuanian prince Gediminas and Tatar princes. To be a Russian noble meant not to be an ethnic Russian, but to serve the Russian Empire. From the Peter the Great time Russian tsars married foreign princess and the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II was formally (eth-nically) Russian only for 1/64 part. The most ‘national’ and may be the most prosperous ruling for Russia was realized by Catherine the Great (1762–1796), who was German according her origin. In the epoch of Enlightenment Russia began to identify itself as a European state. Thus it began to share Western values and as a result began to be opened for Western influences. We can see three main origins of intellectual influences in the Enlightenment: France, Germany and Britain. The French thought was brought to Russia with French modes, the style of courteous life and political thoughts. The German influence was connected first of all with metaphysics and natural sciences (most of Russian scientist, especially in academic institu-tions, were Germans). England was the origin of influence in political and natural philosophy. Scottish philosophy was particularly important for Russians first of all as moral and social philosophy and political economy. The main agents of influence were so called noblemen-philosophers who were internationally educated, knew languages and communicated (personally or in written form) with European intellectuals. They felt themselves as ‘citizens of the world’ and realized the cultural and intellectual unity with the West. It was the nobility who developed ideas of civil society, democracy, freedom and legislation in 18th and 19th centuries. Only in the second half of the 19th century so marginal a group as Russian intelligent-sia took its turn. The elite-ness of nobility, expressed in a special way of life, the system of values and even in French that had become the language of internal communication, was rather a prerequisite of cultural openness and of an attempt to live in the ‘wide world’, than an evidence of the caste narrowness. The ‘nobleman-philosopher’ felt himself a ‘citizen of the world’ and belonged equally to Russian and European culture.

Feyzi Baban Associate Professor, Political Studies Department, Trent University, [email protected]

Cosmopolitan Europe: Border Crossings and Transnationalism in Europe In recent years European politics has witnessed two simultaneous developments, which are indicative of two contradictory trends. The first is an emphasis on the idea of a cosmopolitan Europe, as facilitated by further European integration. This accelerated integration is said to be creating a cosmopolitan Europe in which citizenship is decoupled from its national bearings and supra national European institutions facili-tate the emergence of new identities and belongings that are not necessarily national in origin. The sec-ond trend points toward an increasing visibility of right wing parties and movements expressing hostility towards cultural multiplicity and an official denunciation of multiculturalism, accompanied by a closure of borders and denial of rights to non-European nationals. The paper will argue that these seemingly con-tradictory trends are not necessarily contradictory but instead complimentary in erecting real and imagi-nary borders around Europe. The paper further argues that growing transnational populations within Europe such as immigrants, refugees, non-residents and non-status individuals act as a corrective to this false perception of a cosmopolitan Europe by bringing the ‘outside in’ and challenging the notions of European borders and established identities. To illustrate this argument the paper will concentrate on the


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experience of third generation Turkish-Germans. Instead of traditional cosmopolitanism, the experience articulated by in-between transnational populations such as Turkish-Germans constitute a contrapuntal cosmopolitanism in which divergent and contradictory experiences are read together as a way of illustrat-ing on-going inclusions and exclusions within European body politic and as Sandro Mezzadra argues has the potential to ‘decompose’ traditional understandings of European citizenship, putting ‘citizenship in motion.’

Moira Bernardoni PhD Candidate, Marie Curie project ENGLOBE, Middle East Ankara University, [email protected]

Envisaging the Production of Cosmopolitan Space Starting from a commitment to figure out the necessary conditions for the development of an intercultural dialogue, in this contribution I sketch out a reflection that aims at envisaging a cosmopolitan society by examining (urban) space as an active instrument of social change. Accordingly, in my discussion of cos-mopolitan urbanism the leading question will be the following: ‘Is a cosmopolitan society possible without a cosmopolitan space?’ Henri Lefebvre’s 1974 classic treaty The Production of Space will provide my main theoretical framework to focus on the production of cosmopolitan space as an essential requirement for rethinking cosmopolitanism. In the urban context, three main meanings and uses of the notion of cosmopolitan emerge. They refer to, respectively, a cosmopolitan attitude, a cosmopolitan project and a cosmopolitan city. My leading assump-tion is that every society has a particular perception of spatiality and produces its own space. More spe-cifically, in the era of globalization, space is conceptualized as a ‘space of flows’, due to space-time com-pression. The hypermobility of capital, goods, people and ideas produces not only a network of global cities, but also simultaneous processes of spatial homogenization and fragmentation. If by cosmopolitan-ism we mean the desire and intention of engaging with the socio-cultural difference, the analysis of the idea of ‘cosmopolis’ leads us directly to examine public space as the place par excellence of the encounter with diversity, i.e. a space shaped by an inherent plurality of cultural values. Despite the current deep transformations of the traditional public spaces, the conceptualization of a civil society becoming global through the new media and the Internet calls for a rethinking of the notions of citizenship and cultural identity beyond national and territorial borders. How is it possible a passage from a global civil society to a cosmopolitan one? My argument is that, despite the current unevenness of socio-economic conditions, globalization inher-ently pushes towards a cosmopolitan outcome – literally, it pushes us towards becoming ‘citizens of the world’. The reason is that global processes affect us all, since every local territorialized act produces global repercussions. Because cosmopolitan space is supposed not to deny, but rather enhance diversity as a constituent element that shapes the identity of our globalized world, my research focuses on already exist-ing social and spatial everyday practices that show a degree of authentic cosmopolitan attitude. The tria-lectical unity theorized by Lefebvre—the unity of spatial practices, space of representation (conceptuali-zation of a cosmopolis) and representational spaces (cosmopolitan public space)—is thus a necessary condition to implement any real cosmopolitan project.

Tamara Caraus Researcher, New Europe College Bucharest, [email protected]

Cosmopolitanism and the Legacy of Eastern European Dissent In my paper I intend to investigate whether Eastern Europeans’ dissent may provide any lesson for the contemporary debates on cosmopolitanism. The paper will focus on the dissident thinking of Charta 77, a human right movement in socialist Czechoslovakia, especially on the writings of Jan Patocka (1907–1997), philosopher, cofounder and spokesperson of Charta 77, and Vaclav Havel, cofounder and leader of this dissident movement.


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The paper will explore two sets of interrelated questions. The first set of questions concerns the possibil-ity and practice of dissidence: In the name of what values were the dissents’ clams formulated? Are these values local, national, international or universal? What legitimates the dissidents’ permanent questioning and contestation of the given/imposed meanings in a political regime? My assumption is that Charta 77 civil, non-violent resistance to a hegemonic ideology and to a totalizing system was possible through the appeal to universal values. i.e. human rights, and to a cosmopolitan vision that considers that ultimate units of moral concern are individual human beings, not states, certain regimes or particular forms of human associations. The second set of questions will concern the possible contribution of the Eastern European dissident thought to a non-foundationalist cosmopolitan theory that has to tackle several un-avoidable tensions: How should look like a cosmopolitan project in the alleged post-metaphysical and post-universalistic theoretical framework? Is cosmopolitanism possible without universalism? How should we conceive cosmopolitanism after the scepticism towards the grand narratives of modern ideolo-gies? How can one justify cosmopolitan values without falling back on some conceptions of a fixed human nature or a shared system of belief? What does it mean to be cosmopolitan today, given the plurality of the interpretative standpoints in the contemporary world? In this context, my hypothesis is that Jan Patocka’s concept of ‘permanent questioning’, ‘applied’ by Vaclav Havel, provides us a minimalist framework for conceiving a non-totalizing and post-universalist cosmopolitanism theory, avoiding the postulation of a global ‘overlapping consensus’ and exploring the dynamics of contestability and disagreement. In addi-tion, given the universality of cosmopolitan principles, a shadow of totalitarianism is on every cosmopoli-tan theory. Every new proposal of a cosmopolitan approach risks formulating a new legitimating narrative that will take the vacant place of previous ‘grand narratives’. A new grand narrative should be suspected of having, more or less voluntary, ideological intentions. From this perspective, the legacy of Eastern European dissidence provides, once more, a valuable resource for thinking a cosmopolitan political the-ory.

Georg Cavallar Senior Lecturer, Dep. of Philosophy, University of Vienna, [email protected]

Kant’s Law of World Citizens: A Historical Interpretation Publications which draw attention to the historical dimension of the current cosmopolitan discourse have been rare. In this paper, I try to contextualize Kant’s law of the world citizens, and offer a historical inter-pretation while avoiding the pitfalls of historical relativism. I build on a previous essay, where I have clari-fied the concept of cosmopolitanism, distinguished among its various forms, namely epistemological, eco-nomic or commercial, moral, theological, political, and cultural versions, and argued for the compatibility of moral, legal and theological cosmopolitanisms. There is a three-part division in Kant’s philosophy con-cerning the highest good and the future of the human species: The foundation of a cosmopolitan condition of perpetual peace, a global legal society of peaceful states, a ‘cosmopolitan whole’, perhaps a world repub-lic is the highest political good. The establishment of a global ethical community is – secondly - the highest moral good in this world. Finally, the highest good proper coincides with the transcendent kingdom of God, the intelligible world, the kingdom of Heaven or a moral realm. This paper focuses on one particular aspect of the global legal society, namely Kant’s cosmopolitan law. I will also try to illustrate how this law relates to other conceptions of hospitality rights developed in international legal theory from Francisco de Vitoria up to Kant’s time. I will make comparisons and suggest where Kant’s originality should be located. Kant has sharply distinguished between law and virtue, between external compliance with norms or legal-ity and an inner disposition, between prudence and morality, between the doctrine of rights and the phi-losophy of history. In the latter, Kant understands Nature reflectively and tentatively as a ‘moral facilita-tor’ of the education of the human species. There is a tension between the human species propelled or instigated by Nature towards legal and moral ends on the one hand and an understanding of human his-tory as a collective learning process, whereby humans are seen as more or less autonomous agents not manipulated by Nature. The next section thus focuses on this very philosophy of history: on the role of the ‘spirit of commerce’ to promote more peaceable relations among communities, on the so-called four-stage theory, doux commerce, global integration, and mutual self-interest. I will finish with some general re-marks on Kant’s cosmopolitan law and how it can be criticized.

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Carl Cederberg Senior Lecturer, School of Culture & Communication, Södertörn University, [email protected]

Emmanuel Levinas and the Notion of the Human as the Ground for Critique of Humanism In his critique of the notion of the human, Foucault claimed that the notion was an 18th century invention, soon to disappear. This is certainly true for the post-Kantian ‘empirico-transcendental doublet’ that he helped us investigate. But the notion of the human is older than this. Arguably, philosophy has always revolved around the notion of the human. And, as we will see, the notion of the human has always been tied to a notion of critique. According to classical humanism, only by transcending the present in a critical attitude, does one truly fulfil one’s humanity. But after Nietzsche and especially in the jargon of late 20th century French Philosophy, the notion of the human stands exactly for that which must be criticized. This paper thus sets as its aim to 1) paint a swift history of the transition of the notion of the human, from Plato and classical humanism onwards to 20th century antihumanism, as well as to 2) show how the trajectory of the notion of the human interacts with that of the notion of critique, and finally 3) present the philoso-phy of Emmanuel Levinas as an attempt to harness the critical force of the antihumanists in a new under-standing of the human.

Carmen Cozma Professor, Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, Al.I.Cuza University of Jassy, [email protected]

A cosmopolitan Manner of Philosophizing in the Present-Day World Culture: Phenomenol-ogy of Life One of the most significant directions of the world-wide contemporary philosophy, ‘phenomenology of life’ of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka represents a major path of thinking and acting for the promotion of what does mean the universal valuable in human beingness by disclosing and unfolding an essential modality of understanding and shaping some paradigms of world culture. The Polish-North American philosopher is an original author – especially known through her magnum opus in four tomes: Logos and Life (1988–2000)—and a reputed activist doing exceptional work to foster a culture of dialogue in the world—as founder and president of the World Phenomenology Institute and also of the Center for the Promotion of Cross-Cultural Understanding (both of Hanover, New Hampshire, USA). The impressive Tymienieckan philosophical work has imposed itself as a great contribution to the heralding of a ‘New Enlightenment’ encompassing the all humanity in the endeavour of creating, maintaining and developing the well-being and the common good of mankind, in securing the human common fate. Putting in act a holistic and dy-namic philosophy upon life and human condition, the ‘phenomenology of life’ offers a viable pattern of communication between different cultures, of overcoming any kind of contradictions in dealing with the fundamental issues of living together and sharing-in-life. We can find ‘roots’ and ‘wings’ for tackling and comprehending in a better way our cosmopolitan humanness, due to the opening of a creative approach of identity and otherness, based on the authentic values of freedom and dignity of humans, by admitting differentiation and also by working for harmony in the play of life (in its totality). Throughout new con-cepts and a very own complex vision of the respect for life, the philosophy-in-act of Anna-Teresa Tymie-niecka manifests valences of an integrator enterprise in interpreting the cosmopolitan status of the phi-losopher in nowadays, in affirming the role of a responsible citizen of the world.

Tania Espinoza PhD Candidate, King’s College, Cambridge, [email protected]

Cosmopolitanism of the Not-All, from a Psychoanalytic Point of View Kant's cosmopolitanism entails a paradox. On the one hand, it is the interest of 'humanity as a whole' which must always remain the ultimate horizon of our ethical choices. And on the other, we know from the antinomies of pure reason that this 'whole' does not exist as an empirical reality. From a certain point of view, humanity is, to use a psychoanalytic expression, 'not-all'. This is a paradox into which the very possibility of Enlightenment runs. The scholar is entitled to the free exercise of his reason insofar as he


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'regards himself as a member of the community as a whole' [als Glied eines ganzen gemeinen We-sens/Weltbürgergesellschaft], a regulative and not constitutive totality. In other words, autonomy depends on members of the city with its particular interests being able to assume a point of view that, from the perspective of speculative reason, is untenable. In a recent essay, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Alain-Miller reminded us that the pressing question of the exemplarily cosmopolitan science from which he speaks is still: is it for everyone? The elitism that generally accompanies the practice of psychoanalysis suggests otherwise. And yet, its worldwide dissemi-nation has followed paths that challenge the patterns of linguistic, geographical domination of the Anglo-Saxon academy. Psychoanalysis today is as alive in Mexico City, Sao Paolo and Ljubljana as in Vienna, Paris or New York. The history of psychoanalysis is cosmopolitan; it is a history of adoption, exile and incessant trespassing of literal and metaphorical frontiers. Freud's flight to London in 1938 ‘to die in freedom', is emblematic of this ‘Jewish science’s’ traumatic relationship with nationalism's darkest side. Cosmopolitanism is also at the core of psychoanalytic theory, where Freud's de-centring of the ego makes room for the foreign to come within the boundaries of the self; and where the dream mechanism of displacement distributes meaning where we least expect it. In the unconscious there is nothing too remote, neither in time nor in space; and the 'stranger', as Julia Kristeva reminded us, is our most intimate neighbour. I propose to sketch a way in which psychoanalysis, through its dialogue with Kant and two little known episodes of its cosmopolitan history—the journey of the Polish psychoanalyst Eugenia Sokolnicka to France and of the Viennese Marie Langer to Argentina—can update an ethics of cosmopolitanism that confronts its paradox, and makes the 'not-all', the impossibility of making humanity 'whole', its point of origin.

Johan Fornäs Professor, School of Culture & Communication, Södertörn University, [email protected]

Signifying Europe: Symbols and Mediations This text discusses examples of mediated and mediating symbols used to build trust in Europe as a shared transnational project. It starts with a general discussion of globalisation and transnational mediation, and then briefly exemplifies how money, flags, anthems and other symbols work to suggest identifications. The five key European symbols ratified by the Council of Europe and the European Union are then intro-duced, and it is shown how these leading European institutions understand the role of political symbols in the on-going transnational unification process. Each of these key symbols is then presented and analysed, indicating how the EU and other pan-European actors have chosen to express a sense of shared identity and meaning. It is scrutinised how selected such symbols are used as multi-layered mediating tools in creating loyalty and reinforcing faith in collective societal institutions of markets and states and in the corresponding imagined supra-national community. It is shown how dominant European symbols strive to balance between homogenisation and fragmentation, and which key values they tend to link to Euro-pean identity. The analysis locates a core identifying formula of ‘an ambivalent desire for communication with others’. However, it also finds a major set of tensions around this thematic core, understanding European identification as a dynamic process of mediation rather than as a limited and limiting object.

Aleksandra Glabinska MA, Stockholm University, [email protected]

The Concept of Human Nature and Dignity during the Polish Renaissance: Traces of a Mul-ticultural Learning Milieu in the 16th century For our spirit is free. With help of our thoughts the spirit is moving throughout different places, looking at them and reflecting about everything. Here we are in Poland, but despite of this we are wondering about events happening in east and west, perceiving as we were there following those who left. We discus with those, who are far away and even wake up dead humans to converse with, holding them, as if they were alive, with love, in our arms.


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These words were written by Jan ze Trzaciany, a Polish philosopher and professor at the Jagiellonian Uni-versity of Krakow. It is a fragment of his Latin treatise concerning human nature and dignity, published in 1554 in Krakow. He was one of many representatives of a new, humanistic movement at the Jagiellonian University. Lecturers were opposing a scholastic way of learning, arguing for studying various antique philosophers and thinkers, intending to read Aristotle’s texts in the original, omitting scholastic com-ments. They wanted to renew education with rhetoric, history, music, as well as to include artes liberals in the new curriculum. Many lecturers were bilingual or even trilingual; they spoke Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Renaissance humanist studies emphasized education of a special type of individual, a ‘spiritual citizen’. The renewed contemporary interest in the concept of dignity and human rights is a consequence of the post-WWII crisis, the new shape of Europe and the whole, globalizing, world after the Cold War. In Poland ‘the revolution of dignity’ began in 1980. During this time, the ethos of Solidarity was created. Workers wrote on theirs banderols: ‘Give us back our dignity’! The concept of dignity, developed by Renaissance philosophers, can instructively be related to, as well as contrasted with, the cosmopolitan ideas of human rights as an equal foundation for the whole of humani-ty. At the same time the notion of dignity is implied in the semantic field of multicultural education. In the paper, contemporary educational notions of bilingualism, the importance of uplifting, supporting and widening the cultural consciousness of the student, practicing in different milieus, and so on, are com-pared with, and problematized from the viewpoint of, the Renaissance thinkers’ emphasis on the impor-tance of dwelling between many cultures, on the border line.

Katrin Goldstein-Kyaga Professor, School of Culture & Communication, Södertörn University, [email protected]

The New Cosmopolitanism, Intercultural Education and Peace The new cosmopolitanism which has emerged during recent years is rooted in an old tolerant multicul-tural view and at the same time dissociates itself from a cosmopolitanism which actually represents hid-den Western universalism. It is often combined with concepts such as critical, dialogical and vernacular in an attempt to find a middle-way between mono-culturalism and particularistic multiculturalism. Howev-er, there are two contradictory and seemingly incompatible characteristics in the new cosmopolitanism: 1) How to create universal ethics? and 2) how to accept and tolerate cultures of the whole world? In my paper I will relate the new cosmopolitanism to intercultural education. This is in line with Ulrich Beck’s reasoning in applying methodological cosmopolitanism to the social sciences including education. Moreover, I will discuss the inherent contradiction in the new cosmopolitanism mentioned above and how a cosmopolitical intercultural education can contribute to research about creating peaceful societies in a globalized world.

Ksenia V. Golovko PhD Candidate, Faculty of Philosophy, St. Petersburg State University, [email protected]

Equal as Utopia of Democracy in Époque of Globalization According to Jaques Ranciere The goal of this paper is to represent and to analyse the central themes of contemporary French philoso-pher Jacques Ranciere’s works on equality and democracy in multicultural society. Jacque Ranciere raises in his works a set of conceptual questions regarding the notion of revolution, com-munity, refusal and equality. Nowadays these topics are a standard part of the discourse on politics and aesthetics. The French philosopher, however, problematizes the present condition of politics and argues against the mainstream understanding of democracy as a mere system of government. Disagreement and inequality offer, in his opinion, an alternative view on democracy.


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Ranciere tries to rethink and to overcome the logic of consensus, which he understands to be the main concept of democracy, and which, in his opinion, treats the reality, interests and values indiscriminately. The ‘real’ democratic community is pictured by the philosopher in a paradoxical, contradictory and con-flicting dimension. The central questions of Ranciere’s analysis can be summarized as follows:

• Why is the free democratic community unable to eradicate social contradiction and ethnical conflicts? • Why do emigrants and the underprivileged have no place in the society where they live? • How can a society solve problems which can not be solved rationally? • How should we understand a society which is not equal to itself?

Developing the topic of the marginals Ranciere underlines the failure of any political application of the time-honoured philosophical concept of totality which automatically leaves out any element not respond-ing to its grand pattern. This, Ranciere argues, clearly explains the fact of alienation of the marginals, the underprivileged, and emigrants. Altogether, humanism causes the contemporary western society to estab-lish some form of a punitive mechanism, which works against anything potentially dangerous to the exis-tence of ‘the ideal community’. The drama of this society lies in the inner contradiction between an at-tempt to eliminate the conflict and its fatal manifestation. Humanism and democracy generate models in which the defense against terrorism turns into a form of state terror, while the concept of human rights mutates into a weapon against humanity. According to Ranciere, the contemporary democracy is essen-tially Marxist, except that it turns historical necessity into the necessity of the global market. The latter determines the rules, the principle of consensus, as the only form of democracy. Ranciere’s theory belongs to a tradition of thought which treats the conflict character of the society as something we are unable be change but can analyze. The philosopher understands the utopian character of his idea of equality. Conse-quently, it makes equality an important moral category. Altogether, the concept of the society which is not identical to itself, the society in perpetual conflict, is essential to the understanding of this new form of subjectivity.

Yulia Gradskova Post-doctoral fellow, Centre for Baltic and East European Graduate School, Södertörn University, [email protected]

Soviet ‘Education of Internationalism’—Between Expansionism and Cosmopolitanism? (1960s–1980s) In the centre of the presentation is the analysis of the rhetoric of Soviet ‘internationalism’ as part of the Soviet education of the young people. When the external use of the ‘proletarian internationalism’ by the Soviet state’s expansionism is well known, the different internal application of this ideology did not get enough attention of the researchers yet. The education of internationalism was an important part of the Soviet educational policies – the Clubs of the international friendship (KIDs) in 1960–1980s were function-ing in majority of schools, Komsomol organizations, summer camps and vocational centres. The rhetoric of ‘internationalism’ included different elements: starting from teaching about ‘friendship of the Soviet na-tions under the leadership of the great Russian people’ and ‘friendship of people from the socialist coun-tries’ up to education against racism and colonialism. Soviet youth was constantly reminded about prob-lems of the ‘developing countries’ and was expected to publicly demonstrate its disagreement with au-thoritarianism and social inequality abroad as well as to take part in contests of political songs, solidarity fairs and other activities aimed for help to people from the ‘countries fighting for freedom’. One of the important examples of the Soviet activity of ‘internationalism’ could be campaign of solidarity with Chile (1973–1989) that I will pay particular attention in my presentation. This campaign included not only par-ticipation in the officially organized meetings, but also semi-independent activities of the part of the youth aimed for ‘helping the Chilean people’ (voluntary work during the summer, distribution of information about Chile and Chilean culture, etc.). I argue that the official Soviet ‘education of internationalism’ led to contradictory consequences on the level of everyday practices and interpretations. Public response varied from open hostility to the ‘Other’ (particularly to the ‘other’ in need of help) to attempts of using the official structures of education of ‘in-ternationalism’ for the purpose of getting new knowledge about the world outside the Iron Curtain. Some part of the young people attempted also to use the structures for education of internationalism (first of all KIDs) in order to practice their own understanding of multiculturalism and civic activism of ‘solidarity’.


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Sarah Grunberg PhD Candidate, Graduate School for Social Research, Warsaw, [email protected]

Racial Difference in an Extremely Homogenous Society: Barriers to Individual and Societal Development of Cosmopolitanism The cosmopolitan ideology projects the idea that all human beings, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender, belong to a single community. This ‘love for humanity’, philosophy of universal inclusion, blindness to particularity, and ability to share a common worldview based on moral responsibility to all human beings is key in the cosmopolitan ideology. Based on these aspects of cosmopolitanism, how can racially different individuals in a homogenous environment adopt this cosmopolitan view, if the racially dominant group see them and treat them as fundamentally, culturally, and biologically different? When discrimination and exclusion occur in racially homogenous societies, what is the meaning of cosmopolitanism for individuals who are racially different in these societies? I will specifically focus on African and biracial individuals in the extremely racially homogenous Poland, and what this means for the overall development of cosmopol-itanism.

Heike Härting Associate Professor, Département d'études anglaises, University of Montreal, [email protected]

Imre Szeman Professor, Dep. of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, [email protected]

Popular Cosmopolitanism and Contemporary Film Culture (joint paper) This proposal for a joint presentation on the relationship between critical concepts of cosmopolitanism and contemporary film productions grows out of a collaborative research project on ‘Cosmopolitan Film Cultures.’ Headed by Heike Härting (Université de Montréal), Markus Heide (Humboldt Universität Berlin) and Imre Szeman (University of Alberta), and funded by a TransCoop Research Grant of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, our project examines the ways in which cosmopolitan formations of culture and identity impact on the narrative and cultural production of contemporary film and its multiple audiences, and vice versa: the ways in which film participates in the constitution of new cosmopolitanisms. Why cosmopolitanism in relation to film? While it might be uncommon to use the concept of the cosmo-politan in connection with it, film in all its aspects—production, circulation, criticism, marketing, and re-ception—has always been ‘intrinsically international’ and a matter of ‘cultural exchange’ (Tom O’Regan). The various forms of cultural exchange that mark international film practices, however, are highly uneven. Moreover, understanding film through an international lens has tended to organize the analysis of cultural exchange in the various contexts of film making in terms of a comparative national perspective that juxta-poses or relates distinct national cinemas and production practices to one another. For this reason, there has been a lacuna of theory and criticism that considers the cosmopolitan imaginaries that develop along-side and in addition to the always already global character of film. We argue that bringing together theo-ries of cosmopolitanism and film enables a critical approach to understanding contemporary conditions and practices of cosmopolitanism and of film production and narrative--one that no longer takes the na-tion or national identity production as its single or primary point of analysis. More specifically, cosmopoli-tan film practices, we suggest, engage with the global economy of film making, particular film genres (e.g., border films and humanitarian documentaries), and cosmopolitan cinematic narrative strategies that seek to translate the disjunctures and displacements characteristic of cosmopolitanism into cinematic form. In this presentation, we will argue that contemporary documentaries that engage with the negative effects of and responses to globalization contribute, in both productive and problematic ways, to a non-normative notion and practice of cosmopolitanism. We will begin with Pheng Cheah’s observation that popular nationalism and cosmopolitanism are not mutually exclusive but, if brought into closer proximity, constitute a politically transformative force. Cheah, however, remains skeptical about the formation of a ‘popular cosmopolitanism’ able to generate or sustain the rise of a mass-based global political conscious-


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ness. In part, as we want to argue, the reasons for this general reluctance to imagine cosmopolitanism as a popular, supra-national political practice are related to the ways in which cosmopolitanism has been con-ceptualized as championing a universal human community, marked (in the Kantian sense) by trade and ‘perpetual peace,’ while signifying (in its Marxian sense) a necessary stage of global capitalist production. Normative cosmopolitanisms (e.g., Seyla Benhabib’s notion), then, are often unable (a) to move beyond given political imaginaries, and (b) to mobilize culture in a non-anthropological way (e.g. Appiah’s ‘rooted cosmopolitanism’). We want to suggest, however, that linking film—and specifically contemporary documentaries—and cos-mopolitan theory (particularly Cheah’s, Mignolo’s, and Harvey’s engagement with cosmopolitanism) helps to imagine the possibility of ‘popular cosmopolitanisms.’ Such a theoretical alliance would help us account for the ways in which the media-generated image has become the central means through which we perce-ive and produce our environment and, more importantly, through which we generate a popular cosmopo-litan imaginary of conflicted, heterogeneous and intersecting cultural affiliations, responsibilities, and identities. The possibility of a popular cosmopolitanism is visually meditated specifically through those documentaries that imagine (a) producing a political outcome; and (b) naming a global audience (with all its possible problems). To explore these thoughts we will address the global popularity of political docu-mentaries and their mass-distribution through u-tube, while discussing in more critical detail the ways in which such documentaries as Stephanie Black’s Life and Debt (2001) project a critical popular cosmopoli-tan consciousness articulated (a) by those societies that historically and presently feel the pressure of globalization, economic and political cosmopolitanisms and (b) draw from a history of resistance and dissents whose conceptual roots have always been cosmopolitical.

Tobias Hübinette Researcher, Multicultural Centre, Stockholm, [email protected]

Transracial Adoption, White Cosmopolitanism and the Fantasy of the Global Family Transracial adoption of children as well as of adults is a practice that has been going on for centuries, al-though a common dehistoricized understanding would probably date it to the post-war era and connect it to today’s adoptions from the Third World to the West. However, during the classical colonial period from the 15th century to the first half of the 20th century it was not only non-white native children or adults who were adopted by white colonisers and settlers – also the opposite occurred in the European colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The existence of these ‘inverted’ transracial adoptions is well docu-mented in literary and autobiographical texts as well as in historical and official documents, and in art and visual culture. At that time, the white transracial adoptee who had been transformed into the Other was stigmatized and even demonized as something of an ethnoracial monster transgressing the boundaries between Europeans and non-Europeans. In the contemporary postcolonial era, transracial adoption in practice solely means the adoption of children of colour to white adopters whether it is on a transnational or a national level. At the same time, the memory of the ‘inverted’ transracial adoptions is still kept alive in both literary, cinematic and visual representations and narratives, and the white adoptee who had gone native and had become the Other is nowadays romanticized and even portrayed as something close to an antiracist. This paper aims at reconceptualising transracial adoption within the framework of the European’s fun-damental problem with and lack of being able to attach to the lands and the peoples outside Europe by making use of the concepts of indigenisation and autochtonisation, and by analysing a collection of classi-cal colonial, late colonial and postcolonial literary, cinematic and visual narratives as well as tracing the transformation of the white transracial adoptee from a tragic to a romantic figure and the shift to today’s transracial adoptions which took place on an imaginary level by the way of fantasies of transspecies adop-tions already in the mid-war years. The paper argues that the contemporary Westerner’s need to and desire for creating family ties with the Others has deep historical roots which has resulted in what can be called a particular progressive and antiracist Whiteness, namely a white cosmopolitanism and a vision of a global future family which is discernable in, above all, contemporary visual culture in the form of interra-cial families and global family images with children or adults of different races dancing together, holding each others’ hands, hugging each other or just being together. The desire to affiliate and kin with the Other, the glorification of today’s white adopters of Third World children and the romanticizing of the transracial white adoptee which on the surface may appear so different from each other, can according to


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the paper be seen as a combined attempt at dealing with and accommodating a near future when whites have not only become a minority but also when the West is not hegemonic anymore, and when family ties to the Others will be crucial to survive in a new truly postcolonial world.

Jamil Khader Professor, English Department, Stetson University, [email protected]

Cosmopolitanism and the Infidelity to Internationalism: Repeating Postcoloniality and the World Revolution to Come In this paper, I argue that cosmopolitics theory displaces and occludes the aesthetic and political possibili-ties for constructing radical forms of international subjectivities namely, revolutionary internationalism, which remain grounded in collective modalities of local difference especially, nationalism, subalternity, and ethnic particularism. For cosmopoliticans, recent revolutionary changes around the world simply constitute a sign of the potential of social media technologies especially, face book and twitter, to con-struct communities of struggle and resistance within transnational and cosmopolitan networks. As such, cosmopoliticians translate the political, and the politics of dissent and revolutionary change in particular, into an ethics of the fragmented multitude, one that is embodied in the exclusivist agendas of global civil society and transnational social movements that re-enact, rather than counteract, the logic and ideological coordinates of global capitalism and serve as an alibi for US imperialism. Drawing on and extending Slavoj Žižek’s exhortation to repeat Lenin, I will argue for the need to recuperate revolutionary internationalism today within a revisionist, even redemptive, project that retroactively reads postcoloniality as one of the central referents of the history and theory of internationalism especially, in Lenin’s writings. Lenin, I con-tend, did not simply provide a new language and broader theoretical vocabulary for articulating the con-cerns of the national liberation movements in the colonies, as the standard critiques of Lenin have it, but that he located the language of hope and messianism that characterizes socialist internationalism in the postcolonial field of possibilities. Only a true commitment to revolutionary internationalism, as it is bound to emerge from within the specific material conditions of postcoloniality, where the field of revolutionary possibilities is still open for the construction and stabilization of an alternative egalitarian world order, can maintain the relevance and critical edge of cosmopolitics theory.

Alexander Kustov Research Associate, Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, National Research University—Higher School of Economics, [email protected]

Humanity-Building: Premises and Promises The paper calls for the reassessment of the state-building concept, challenging its national constituent and integrating cosmopolitan principles. The current awareness of common global problems and similar changes in people’s life all over the world have raised the hot debate on globalization within international politics and social sciences, explicitly challenging the assumption that the nation-state is inevitably deter-minative, affirming the establishment of human rights regimes (Donnelly 1986), giving a renewed impetus to the cosmopolitan discussion (Nussbaum 2011[1994]) and revealing the methodological nationalism (Beck 2002; Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002). At the same time, the weakness of nation solidarity within a country is usually seen as an urgent problem (Huntington 2004), as one of the main reasons for state inefficiency, ethnic conflicts and a weak civil so-ciety. While already well-established European states start to construct supranational institutions and strive for a supranational European identity (Castells 2003), most states see so-called nation-building as a major policy priority. Considering the irrefutable need for the greater prosperity and recent global developments, the history of numerous failed attempts to create ‘nations’ and the logical unimportance for the size of an ‘imagined community’, the cosmopolitan state-formation vision of humanity-building can be stipulated. The realiza-tion of humanity-building requires a major revision of citizenship legislations and identity-building poli-cies, but, in fact, as I will argue, it is more about recognizing the failure of the Westphalian and related nationalist projects, the real practice of divisible sovereignty and globalization.


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Here I understand humanity-building as simply a set of practices and policies aimed at creating the under-standing of worldwide interconnectedness and common interests, or, even more strongly, identity of hu-manity as a whole, implying certain rights and obligations. In other words, humanity-building could be referred as the explication of an ‘actually existing process of cosmopolitanization’, described by Ulrich Beck.

Maria Kyriakidou PhD Candidate, Dep. of Media and Communications, London School of Economics, [email protected]

The Mediation of Cosmopolitan Agency: Distant Suffering and the Cosmopolitan Public The media coverage of humanitarian crises and distant suffering has long been in the public and academic agenda with regard to the question of the ethics of the spectatorship of suffering. More recently, this ques-tion has been re-addressed in the context of the relationship between globalisation and the media and the potential of the latter to establish bonds of commitment and responsibility between far away others and form the basis for the construction of a global or cosmopolitan public. The present paper aims at address-ing this question through an empirical focus thus enriching a hitherto largely theoretical debate. Theoreti-cally, the paper follows sociological conceptualisations of cosmopolitanism as an emerging social condi-tion in modern societies and suggests its exploration in relation to processes of mediation at a global level. It argues that such an actually existing cosmopolitanism should be studied as a process ‘from below’ rather than theorised as a project ‘from above’. This paper will therefore address these issues by empiri-cally exploring the mediated construction of the viewers’ agency in relation to distant crises. Empirically based on a study of Greek audiences discussing distant disasters and action at-a-distance, the paper ex-plores the ways viewers themselves articulate their sense of agency vis-à-vis the suffering of distant oth-ers. Focusing on the possibilities of action viewers regard to be available to them and the kind of actions they undertake, the paper will argue that action at-a-distance is fragmentary, circumstantial and often independent of the viewer’s emotional engagement. These limitations are embedded in broader cultural and political discourses of cynicism and powerlessness deeply entrenched in the national and local cul-ture. In this context, cosmopolitan agency is illustrated as limited and the cosmopolitan public as an equally fragmentary and elusive concept. This discussion will, therefore, contribute both empirically and theoretically to questions about the concept of cosmopolitan citizenship and its conditions as well as the relationship between media and cosmopolitanism.

Valerie Lazarenko BA student, Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, [email protected]

Cosmopolitanism and World Culture Cosmopolitanism is a conception of a world outlook that proclaims ideas of world citizenship and domina-tion of interests of the whole world on the interests of a particular nation. Unlike conceptions of patriot-ism or nationalism, that affirm self-actualization and self-development of a certain nation as the highest value for society, cosmopolitanism means replacing these options with a similar idea towards the whole planet. The earliest manifestations of cosmopolitan ideas appeared in Ancient Greece in Cynic philosophy, but the development of this movement relates to the 20th century, when such processes as merging and converg-ing of cultures appeared and assimilation of national societies began. From a cultural point of view, on the one hand, cosmopolitanism in the branch of culture causes a lot of positive changes, creating a special ‘cultural sphere’ around the globe. Representatives of different nations and cultures share experiences and positive achievements, making cultural heritage of a certain country, which includes humanitarian, scientific and artistic values, common for the whole-world society. Such sharing has been one of the aspects of cultural development since the intensive collaboration between countries began in the end of the 20th century.


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On the other hand, the cosmopolitan tendency does not appreciate evolution and natural development of national cultures, which should be subordinated to global interests. Therefore cosmopolitism can cause a risk of extinction of diversity of national cultures and languages. Such negative processes can hurt the above mentioned ‘cultural sphere’, make it monotonous, uniform and uninteresting, and subordinate it to ideology. The last point is the most dangerous one, because such a subordination is a way to restrict cul-tural development that can stall culture on one particular level. All things considered, cosmopolitan tendencies in culture have both positive and negative consequences. The most effective way of solving this problem is to distinguish between the advantages and disadvantag-es of this process in order to affirm reciprocal action between cultures but prevent possible disastrous consequences of one-sided assimilation and extinction of national cultures. Such a solution will help hit-ting the targets of building a society that will make use of all the positive aspects of a cosmopolitan orien-tation.

Rebecka Lettevall Associate Professor, School of Culture & Communication, Södertörn University, [email protected]

The Nansen Passport as a Cosmopolitan Project? After the First World War, Europe counted over ten million refugees. Stateless persons became a pressing political issue in another way than it had been before. The Norwegian scientist and diplomat Fridtjof Nan-sen initiated a means to handle this politically and socially complicated problem by introducing a special refugee passport issued by the League of Nations and called the Nansen passport. In this paper, I illustrate how the new European system, based on the principle of nationality, both caused the problem and gave rise to the new forms of international cooperation that helped to solve it—nationalism and internationalism developing alongside each other. There was no Council of Europe to implement ideas and ideals of rights and justice in the legislation of the new states or for the people who were not citizens. The situation after the First World War was in many ways disastrous as the geopolitical re-drawing of the map of Europe had resulted in many individuals becoming stateless, without citizen rights. The situation must be changed. But how? The Nansen passport is understood as an effort to solve the absurd situation of citizenship that emerged in Europe after the First World War. My aim is to discuss to what extent the Nansen passport can be con-sidered as a cosmopolitan project. What is the historicity of concepts such as cosmopolitanism? An overall purpose is to discuss to what extent and in what way cosmopolitan ideals prevailed during the inter-war period, often referred to as dominated by nationalism and protectionism.

Nina Lex PhD Candidate, Marie Curie project ENGLOBE, Berlin, [email protected]

Exemplary Universality: Global Citizenship according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau is regarded as the epitome of the auto-critique of the Enlightenment. His culturally critical analysis not only allows for an extended understanding of the precarious position of the subject, but also for building a bridge between patriotism and solitary existence which, in a more and more global-ized world where the term society obtains a hybrid meaning, still seeks explication. When faced with Rousseau’s theory of the subject, we encounter mainly a single confrontation denoted by the terms man and citizen. But foremost, younger receptions, such as those present in Tzvetan Todorov or Frederick Neuhouser, emphasize that Rousseau’s aim wasn’t just marking the human condition as a di-remption, but establishing a third way open to man. The moral Individual introduced in Émile ou de l’éducation, which celebrates its 350th anniversary next year, therefore represents the self-determined individual; a synthesis between man and citizen. Referring to Todorov, this subject can neither be under-stood as the solitary being who is solely confined to his own body, nor as the citizen who inhabits merely the city; but is an individual who inhabits the world. Based on reciprocity and due to mutual recognition the sovereign individual embodied by Émile allows for considering the others according to moral acting.


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While freedom in terms of autonomy remains the primordial imperative, Rousseau constitutes that only through becoming aware of the existence of others, as well as by the gaze of others, man discovers his own existence and forbears from the naïve view on himself. Amour propre as a capacity of mutual perspective-taking therefore becomes the pre-condition of human rationality and, according to this, the landmark of togetherness. This savage inhabiting the cities thus represents a universal, cosmopolitan identity, not least because he is by definition not limited to one polity. Rousseau’s egalitarian stance allows him to gain a position beyond the relativistic contextualization of ethical norms of culture or universalistic levelling of multiculturalism. Entirely reformulated with our present knowledge, Rousseau's theory allows for, in my opinion, the opportunity to conceive the individ-ual as oscillating between his diversification and his common existence, his impulse and his reflection and, therefore, offers a path to togetherness beyond political extremism, stoical renunciation or isolated exis-tence, marking Rousseau’s relevance for the challenges society still has to face today.

Ingrid Martins Holmberg Associate Professor, Dep. of Conservation, University of Gothenburg, [email protected]

Dilemmas Within and Without: Inquiring the Nexus of Romany Cosmopolitanism and Na-tional Heritage Politics This paper aims at highlighting and discussing some of the constitutive dilemmas that arise in the nexus of historical cosmopolitanism as conveyed by the Romany People (defined by association), and national heri-tage politics as it is conducted in contemporary planning and regulation in a Swedish context. Leaving out here other core aspects and effects of heritage politics, the authorized heritage discourse (Smith) never-theless seems to serve and enhance notions of place-bound identity on the spatial scale of the nation. Since heritage, history and memory are core stances for social identity and recognition, notions such as these render invisibility to any vagrant individual, group or social strata. This dilemma has been managed within the heritage discourse in relation to indigenous people, such as the Sami in a Swedish context, but has not yet been discussed in relation to the Romany. The particular history/prehistory of Romany cosmopolitanism and migration into and within Sweden, has hitherto left substantial traces at certain phases within the Swedish public field of social planning as well as within research, but has left only few traces in contemporary notions and perceptions of the Swedish national heritage, weather in scholarly research or in public heritage actions (cf. SOU 2010:55). The paper will bring forth, 1) a historical perspective on the Swedish Romany history up until today, with particular focus on epistemological dilemmas, 2) particular conditions which obstruct any attempts to range Rom-any history into national heritage, to be highlighted through theoretical stances of subalternism (Spivak) and insurgent citizenship (Holston 2009), 3) implications for an extended heritage conception and poli-tics.

Mica Nava Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of East London, [email protected]

Visceral Cosmopolitanism: from Alterity to Mere Difference Mica Nava will discuss some of the conceptual and historical issues raised in her book Visceral Cosmopol-itanism: Gender, Culture and the Normalisation of Difference. This focuses mainly on the UK twentieth cen-tury metropolitan experience and is concerned with cosmopolitanism as a ‘structure of feeling’—as an empathetic, inclusive and sometimes eroticised range of feelings and attitudes towards others, otherness and the foreign—which finds expression in vernacular and domestic forms as well as in commerce, social science and the arts. The paper will track changes in this cosmopolitan mood from a counter culture of modernity a century ago to part of quotidian life today—hence the shift from alterity to mere difference, to the normalisation of difference in contemporary urban UK culture. In the process the paper will draw attention to the crucial part played by women in the historical formation of the present. Similarly it will highlight the unexpected influence of twentieth century British class relations on the relative diminution in the significance of epi-


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dermal difference. The paper will also look at the geopolitical and historical specificity of race and differ-ence in UK.

David Östlund Senior Lecturer, School of Culture & Communication, Södertörn University, [email protected]

Virtues and Vices of a World Citizen Nation: Peaceable Conscience—Neutral Disloyalty in Wars of ‘Swedology’ Besides her economic Cinderella story, one major reason for the disproportionate interest in Sweden as a case in point from the 1930s to the 1970s was her peaceable profile. In the positively charged part of the genre dubbed ‘Swedological writing’ (David Jenkins 1968), there was a recurring claim that her peaceful internal development—her cultivation of negotiation and pragmatic compromise between major interest —was related to her long history of peace founded on neutrality. The claim was that Sweden was ‘A Model for a World’, ‘A Champion of Peace’, in both respects (to cite two book titles from 1949). With her strong support for the UN after WWII, and her stance of ‘active neutrality’, Sweden appeared to be the ideal me-diator, taking the universal interest of mankind as her point of departure: the truly responsible member of the community of nations. Wasn’t she the model of civic virtue among citizens in the Republic of Cosmopo-lis, a nation acting in the impartial interest of the world as a whole? This ‘world conscience’ would gradu-ally shift physiognomy from that in style of Dag Hammarskjöld to that of Olof Palme: an increasingly vocif-erous supporter of small nations’ interests visà-vis Superpowers, and the interests of the Third World versus those of the industrialized countries (so often fighting their Cold War by proxy, perverting the process of decolonization). Thus positive ‘Swedology’ tended to use old tropes in new ways. But already during WWII Swedish neutrality had become a centrepiece in a soon growing negative ‘Swedology’, de-bunking idealizations, fighting the Swedophiles’ agendas by turning the little kingdom into a deterrent. ‘Stalwart Sweden’ (an ironic book title from 1943) could thus be portrayed as the paragon of the egoistic shirker of a nation, betraying the community of democracies—and its universal values—by concessions to Nazi Germany, and after the war by refusing to join Norway and Denmark entering NATO, while counting on NATO in the case of a Soviet attack—sacrificing nothing in defence of the free world. And after all: was a nation continuously ruled by one socialist party 1932–1976 a true democracy? Were ‘The New Totali-tarians’ (a book title from 1971) a fifth column, fraternizing with enemies of the West all over the world, or even something worse? Or seen from another angle: wasn’t ‘hedgehog Sweden’s’ dazzling technological modernity epitomized by her death-bringing arms export? Wasn’t she the deceitful face of Enlightenment turned cynical?

Kristian Petrov Post-doctoral fellow, Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, [email protected]

From Europeanism to Cosmism in Late Soviet Foreign Policy Although the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, after the fall of communism has come out of the closet as a ‘cosmopolitan’, the word itself was an irreconcilable invective throughout Soviet history. However, it is precisely in a cosmopolitan tradition, it is argued here, that one can find clues in order to reconstruct Gorbachev’s concept of a European home. But the paradigmatic shift from the traditional ‘anti-imperialist’ Soviet outlook, towards a recognition of global interdependency, convergence and a search for ‘universal consensus,’ where so-called ‘human’ values were placed above the international class struggle, did not only feed from the Enlightenment idea of Europe as a paragon for a future global federa-tion. Gorbachev was particularly influenced by an early 20th century current, which often is referred to as Russian cosmism. The aim of the paper is to indicate the cosmic dimension of Gorbachev’s cosmopolitan vision of a European house. The paper concludes with reflections on what the conceptualisation of a European, or even global, home, can tell us about the fall of communism and what impact the concept has had on today’s search for a common European identity and international integration. An argument is ad-vanced that the notion contained paradoxes, anachronisms and ironies that rather contributed to the dis-location of post-Soviet Russia from Europe.


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Eva Piirimäe Senior Researcher, Institute of Government and Politics, University of Tartu, [email protected]

Herder and Cosmopolitanism Johann Gottfried Herder is mainly known as a father of nationalism and an outspoken critic of cosmopol-itanism. Herder indeed rejects the three main cosmopolitan theories of his time, those represented in the work of Isaak Iselin, Voltaire, and Immanuel Kant. Yet he also sharply criticises modern imperialism and national chauvinism, and his ‘nationalism’ is intertwined with his theory of republican patriotism. Furthermore, in his later years Herder explicitly embraced a distinct kind of cosmopolitanism, designating this position as ‘true cosmopolitanism’. What is this ‘true cosmopolitanism’ and how does it relate to his theory of patriotism? I shall argue in my paper that Herder’s ‘patriotism’ and ‘true cosmopolitanism’ cannot be understood without reconstructing his account of human natural sociability as well as his theory of civilisation [Bildung der Menschheit]. In the early stages of human history, Herder maintains, humans are capable of very strong sociable affections, which however, are limited to their own linguistic and cultural nation, and are reinforced by animosity to other nations. Greek and Roman nations develop on this basis a new, moral, idea of patriotism which contains normative (republican) ideas about domestic politics, while continuing to resort to aggressive foreign policy. In the modern period, Herder argues, nations should maintain, or recreate, these original elements, while further ‘purifying’ these sentiments from animosity to foreign nations.This is possible since humans’ capacity of abstract thought is increasing in history, as reflected in the rise and spread of Christianity as a religion of the universal brotherhood of men. This process, in turn, is supported by the spread of commerce as a means of communication between nations and that of enlightenment as the ‘commerce of minds’. At the same time, Herder is well aware that the process of civilisation is frought with serious risks and dangers and offers a sophisticated account of the main countervailing forces to the rise and spread of ’pu-rified patriotism’ in the modern age. First of all, abstract thinking disconnects moral notions from their sensuous roots and hence renders them motivationally powerless. Second, modern technology contrib-utes to the rise of large sovereign states, the rulers of which are apt to make humans mere ‘cogs in the machine of the state’. Furthermore, this process is attended by the rise of false consciousness, philoso-phers celebrating the new metropolitan forms of sociability and as well as the highly abstract ideals of ‘love of mankind’, which in turn leads to the neglect or even scorn of one’s own language and customs among the people. Even worse, the politicians of modern states know only too well how to fraudulently present their aggressive foreign policy as guided by patriotism or cosmopolitanism. Precisely these very developments which make the ‘purification of sentiments’ possible can hence seriously weaken or even destroy the national sentiments. Yet Herder is adamant that this need not be so, if modern nations under-stand the logic of the process of civilisation as well as the foundations of human sociability and the true ‘dignity’ of man, as taught by the Christian religion. Hence Herder’s answer to these modern challenges is to strengthen the Christian natural sociability of nations by emphasising their various moral duties: the one of cultivating their language and emotionally reconnecting to it through a reappropriation of national heritage (the early lyrics of their nations), the one of respecting the moral ideal of a ‘republic’ as the es-sence of true fatherland, and the one of ‘cultivating the sentiments of peace’ to other nations.

Frank Ejby Poulsen PhD Candidate, Dep. of History and Civilisation, European University Institute, [email protected]

Anacharsis Cloots and the Birth of Modern Cosmopolitanism Anacharsis Cloots is today a forgotten figure of the French revolution, not only for historians of the revolu-tion, but also for cosmopolitan theorists. When a figure from the Enlightenment is sought for cosmopol-itanism, Kant comes as the unique candidate. However, in the nineteenth century Cloots was still regarded as the archetype of cosmopolitanism. Either gone wrong, as nationalists argued; or representing the di-versity of humankind in one polity, as Melville who referred to Captain Ahab’s multicultural crew in Moby Dick as a ‘Clootz [sic] deputation’.


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This paper wishes to re-introduce Cloots’ political thought in context, and to argue that he can be consid-ered as an original (in both sense of the term) thinker of modern cosmopolitanism. Firstly, his ideas were a logical conclusion to the 1789 Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen: if all men are born universally free and equal, then no one can claim authority on the other without legitimate consent, and no group of men can oppose another group sovereignty without violating natural freedom and equal-ity. Secondly, Cloots’ system was also the revolutionary atheist conclusion to previous debates on natural law: natural rights pre-exist civil society, but if there is no God as legitimate sovereign to edict and enforce them, then only nature edicts them, and the people—the whole humankind—is God, the legitimate sover-eign. Finally, one could wonder if his ideas could be applied today, or if contemporary concepts could be con-sidered as originating from Cloots’ system. Could the ‘sovereignty of humankind’ form a better basis to apply the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Could it legally be a better basis to justify external intrusions in nation-states’ affairs? His contradictions are also contemporary: how to conciliate in a global polity the need of local self-determination with universal law? If sovereignty, as Cloots argue, is too dan-gerous to be left in the hands of a group of people, would it not lead to a risk of universal tyranny in the hands of a conceptual humankind? For these reasons, Cloots’ political thought should be considered as an interesting angle of reflection for the history of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan theory.

Valida Repovac-Pašić PhD Candidate, University of Berkeley/Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo, [email protected]

Cosmopolitanism versus Multiculturalism The idea of Cosmopolitanism is drawn from ancient philosophy and re-actualized in contemporary social and political theory as a new 21st century World’s Enlightenment. Contemporary cosmopolitan thinkers such as Seyla Benhabib, Ulrich Beck, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Fine, David Held and many others are applying Stoic principles to our postmodern context. Their argumentation is that today’s antagonisms and conflicts, both local and global, can be resolved through the prism of cosmopol-itanism, which improves tolerance, aids the reestablishment of dialogue, and fosters mutual recognition. The idea of cosmopolitanism corresponds with world integration processes and the way they impact and eventually prevail over the nation-state. A very significant point in postmodern cosmopolitan theories is the critique and rejection of the concept of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism as a concept was theoretically developed in the beginning of the 1980s and applies, according to the cosmopolitans, only to ‘collective categories of diversity and is ori-ented (more or less) in the first instance on a homogeneous group … Therefore the multiculturalism is opposed to the transnational individualization...’ (Beck 2004). On the other hand, cosmopolitanism is about universal norms and values which overcome the distinguishing line between the ‘us’ and the ‘them.’ Seyla Benhabib sees cosmopolitanism as a ‘dialogic universalism’ (normative and political project of the dialogue, negotiation, mediation) or the possibility of ‘us’ with all our attributes to dialogue with the ‘oth-ers’ in all their differences (Benhabib 2008). The aim of this paper is to analyse and compare these two concepts.

Márton Rövid PhD Candidate, Dep. of International Relations and European Studies, Central European University, [email protected]

The Cosmopolitan Gypsy: On the Transcendence of National Citizenship in the Light of the Case of Roma, an Allegedly Non-Territorial Nation The Roma are increasingly seen as a group that challenges the principle of territorial democracy and the Westphalian international order. While diverse in customs, languages, church affiliations, and citizenship, the Roma can also be seen as members of a non-territorial nation. One international non-governmental


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organization, the International Romani Union, advanced claims for the recognition of the non-territorial Romani nation and advocated a general vision in which people are no longer represented on the basis of state. The manifesto ‘Declaration of Nation’ claims that the Roma have survived for several centuries as distinct individuals and groups with a strong identity without creating a nation-state, so therefore, their example could help humanity find an alternative way to satisfy the need for identity without having to lock it to territorial boundaries. The paper studies theories of post-national citizenship in the light of the case of Roma. What are the empirical preconditions of the transcendence of liberal nationhood? Under what circumstances can claims of post-national citizenship be justified? To what extent do transnational social, religious, and ethnic movements challenge the foundations of the so-called Westphalian interna-tional order, in particular the trinity of state-nation-territory? What forms of political participation do they claim? Do transnational nations pose a different challenge to normative political theory than other transnational communities? By studying the case of Roma, the paper relates the literature on diasporas and global civil society to cos-mopolitan theories thus offering a new typology of boundary problems. The paper demonstrates that the trinity of state-nation-territory is challenged from all three directions. Trans-state, transnational and non-territorial forms of solidarity and political action are thriving. Such developments challenge state-centric liberal, multicultural and nationalist theories alike. The paper discusses five potential ways cosmopolitan theories may respond to such challenges.

Christoph Senft PhD Candidate, Marie Curie project ENGLOBE, University of Potsdam, [email protected]

‘If this universal oneness could be understood by all…’: The Concept of Cosmopolitanism in

Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line In my paper I would like to present some aspects of my dissertation project with the working title ‘To-wards Transmodern Literary Historiography—Local Past and Global Designs in Recent Indian English Fiction’. In this project I have a closer look at some examples of very recent Indian English fiction that I regard as (counter-) visions and narratives of global history and order. The works I discuss are textual representations of local histories and global designs and (un-)consciously reflect upon the experiences of globalisation/globality in past and present – experiences that cannot be grasped by clear-cut concepts of interpretation. Indian Novels in English, using both ‘colonial’ and ‘regional’ languages and symbols, being part of a well-oiled cultural industry and often having a wide ‘Western’ reader- ship, are harmonious im-ages of alleged universality and, at the same time, transmodern counter-(hi)stories of both Indian and global reality. One of the ambiguous concepts of interpretation in the novels is the notion of cosmopolitanism. On the one hand, it is described and represented in various facets on the textual level. On the other hand, it is implemented and lived by the authors writing these texts: born in India, living somewhere between Europe/the US and their country of origin and seemingly sharing universal values. But following a transmodern approach as it is put forward by Mignolo, we have to ask our- selves in how far the category of cosmopolitanism has been an implementation of Western knowledge and power schemes. To a certain degree cosmopolitanism certainly is the re-application of a category developed in the course of encounters with cultures and cultural milieus in Europe ‘lacking’ in modernity that have created a particular understanding of a unified world that has to be attained. On the other hand, European thought is of course not the exclusive source of the cosmopolitan idea. Cosmopolitanism is thus at least the result of a complex process of interrelated perceptions and rationalisations which are still at work, for example in various cultural practices like the one of English fiction produced by Indian authors. These perceptions and rationalisations have to be interpreted in order to uncover existing hierarchies of concep-tualisation. As an example I would like to discuss one text that exemplifies some ideas and problems regarding the concept of cosmopolitanism: Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line (2008). Critically reflecting upon this text might provide interesting insights into the conceptualisations of cosmopolitanism as generally discussed at this conference.


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Marina Simić Assistant Professor, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, [email protected]

Cosmopolitan Belonging and Othering: What is Left Unsaid in the Serbian Practice of Cos-mopolitanism as Anti-Nationalism In this paper I focus on the relationship between processes of identification, location and politics in Serbia. Drawing from my fieldwork research in Serbian towns of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Subotica, I record the way a particular group of people – mostly young, well-educated and relatively high social status Serbs feel dislocated by recent socio-political changes which they feel have left them with a ‘spoiled identity’. I have been interested in the discursive practices that these people use to constitute themselves as cos-mopolitan 'European' subjects and the tactics they employ in comparing themselves to concepts, ideals and stereotypes about how, and who, they would like to be. My question was how these discourses articu-lated symbolic elements into moments of social action in ways different from other possible identification strategies like that of nationalism, which dominated the region in the recent years. Thus, I paid special attention to nationalist sentiments in relation to cosmopolitanism – as my informants made clear the link between their anti-nationalist attitude and cosmopolitan belonging. They use different strategies of other-ing (especially what is known as ‘nesting-Orientalism’) for allocating nationalism to different internal others (notably so called ‘urban-peasants’ and various others ‘newcomers’) in order to create a space for themselves which will enable them to identify with the imagined cosmopolitan ‘others’ of the ‘West’. These discursive strategies of positioning frequently excluded any direct talk about the recent Yugoslav past and violent disintegration of the country, but focus on more nuanced ways of building the anti-nationalist stance. I explore how these strategies of ‘half-talk’ create space for cosmopolitan positioning that actually renders any multi-ethnic dialogue in the country obsolete and, in the same time, makes visi-ble the very national location that my informants wanted to escape.

Michael Skey Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of East London, [email protected]

‘Are we all cosmopolitan now?’: An Examination of the Varying Meaningfulness and Comensurability of Everyday Engagements with ‘Otherness’ The literature on cosmopolitanism has mushroomed in the past decade or more as attempts are made to theorise; new patterns of mobility, interactions between previously distant social groups and the emer-gence of institutions to manage these processes. Investigations into practical or everyday forms of cos-mopolitanism have been useful in grounding some of the more theoretical of these debates. However, the concept is poorly defined and many studies still don’t address the varying meaningfulness and commen-surability of different cosmopolitan practices. In this paper, I build on the arguments of those who have emphasised the strategic aspects and temporal dimensions of cosmopolitan expressions and practices, (Skrbis et al, 2004, Skrbis & Woodward, 2007, Kothari, 2008), by focusing on the conditional nature of many of these engagements, the resources and constraints that different actors operate with or under and, as a result, the varying commitments they have to different ‘others’. Illustrative examples from a study of social identities in England and newspaper coverage of foreign sport stars are used to theorise cosmopolitanism, as a perspective that is periodically articulated, in relation to specific needs, contexts or prompts, rather than being an inherent property of particular individuals, groups or situations. A final section puts forward a typology for more effectively assessing, and analysing, the meaning and significance of these engagements.

Roman Sukholutsky PhD Candidate, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, [email protected]


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The Morning After: Shifting the Focus of the Cosmopolitan Debate from Political to Moral Cosmopolitanism in the Wake of the Events of 1989 The two main branches of nowadays cosmopolitan thought are Moral and Political Cosmopolitanisms. While Moral Cosmopolitanism promotes the idea of globally unified moral values and commitments which justify political organization and institutions that may be imposed on individuals Political Cosmopolitan-ism maintains that some kind of unified political community encompassing the whole humanity is re-quired for realization and implementation of cosmopolitan ideal. Despite the variety of its philosophical and academic definitions the term Cosmopolitanism is used nowa-days primarily in its Moral sense while in the past numerous Political cosmopolitan projects were pro-posed and discussed. Unlike Political Cosmopolitanism Moral Cosmopolitanism is vague, unclear and re-quires almost no concrete actions thus remaining relatively untouched by the present political conditions and the current international situation. The purpose of this paper is to explain the abandonment of Politi-cal cosmopolitan aspirations and along with it the abandonment of more active and concrete cosmopoli-tan action and a clear preference of Moral cosmopolitanism which allows detachment form current politi-cal situation and does not require immediate changes of political world order. I claim that the final blow to Political Cosmopolitanism with its aspiration to develop a world state or at least a federation was delivered by the end of the Cold War. After 1989 for the first time in history the democracy won a broad support among nations and was agreed to be the most desired form of govern-ment, even though the humanity remained divided; there was an expectation that governments, interna-tional organizations and citizens of the world will devote themselves to an attempt of solving global prob-lems and will adopt the principles of global citizenship. The actual developments were very different and the world witnessed the revival of religious and nationalist approaches requiring the preservation of dif-ferent communities' cultural identities. An understanding that even in such favorable conditions as the post Cold War years humanity has not moved into the direction of at least partial political unity "killed" the hopes of Political Cosmopolitanism and forced the research and debate about Cosmopolitanism into philosophical and purely unrealistic moral areas such as theories of social justice. The end of the Cold War became the final blow and the following 1990s were the Morning After for Political Cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitans.

Oleksandr Svyetlov PhD, Institute of Public Memory/Museum of Soviet Occupation, Kyiv, [email protected]

Nationalism vs. Patriotism: Theory and Practice in the Context of Inter-Ethnic Conflicts in Poland and Ukraine The events of the past still have an influence on the present Polish-Ukrainian relations, as they constitute public narratives of the shared past and condition the vision of each other. Memory of collective wrongs and atrocities suffered in the past from another ethnic group often burdens people with strong resent-ment. Today Poles and Ukrainians seek a new relationship in a common European house. Never before have the conditions been so favourable for the reassessment of the 20th century nationalisms in Poland and Ukraine. G. Santayana once said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Therefore I would like to focus on the reasons and outcomes of the 1943–47 clashes and ethnic cleansing operations in Poland and Ukraine with the emphasis on the current historical discourses on the Polish-Ukrainian history. In the past the actions of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the Ukrainian Insur-gent Army (UPA), the Polish Armia Krajowa (AK), the USSR and the new Polish state played a central role in the context of mutual Polish-Ukrainian violent conflicts in the bordering regions of Galicia and Volyn ́. With the emergence of independent non-communist Poland and Ukraine, those wishing to understand their neighbours unavoidingly have to talk about common historical experience. Therefore it is of special academic and public interest to conduct investigation into the temporal and qualitative dynamics of past conflicts in Poland and Ukraine, as well as the scope and possibility for mu-tual reconciliation through (re)interpretation of former violent clashes by way of detailed examination of how the past events are remembered / assessed / commemorated. It will be done through comparative analysis of regional and trans-national remembrance aspects. My second aim is the exploration of these


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conflict dynamics, as well as the elaboration of an appropriate theoretical framework for the explanation of the factors which contributed to violent conflicts and suffered injustice. I would also like to develop a framework for understanding the nationalism that would integrate various theories into a coherent model and will become applicable for my case study. As a topic of academic inquiry these are new areas and this constitutes my primary motivation for undertaking research.

Heather Tidrick PhD Candidate, University of Michigan, [email protected]

Contextualising Post-Socialist Hungarian Anti-Gypsyism in the Expanding European Union This essay attempts to clarify Hungarian understandings of cosmopolitanism and perceived threats to the Hungarian nation through the lens of anti-Gypsyism. Drawing on my own ethnographic research on post-socialist Roma integration and institutional practices in Hungary, I discuss contemporary post-socialist anti-Gypsyism in the historical context of late 19th and early 20th century Hungarian nationalism and the particularities of fin-de-siècle Hungarian industrialization and embourgeoisiement. I argue that social patterns that emerged in this earlier period—namely, the widespread and profound ambivalence about these processes of modernization in Hungary and the central role that the capital city of Budapest played in the process—help to explain social exclusion and anti-Romani violence in contemporary Hungary and the particular expressions of anxiety centred around such issues as demographic change and ‘Gypsy crime.’ Nationbuilding efforts embodied in 19th and early 20th century Hungarian architecture, music, literature, and néprajz (ethnology) demonstrate an urgent concern for locating the essential Hungarian self and finding an articulation of that self that could be simultaneously authentically Hungarian yet also modern. This ethical, political, aesthetic, and intellectual project was centred in the diverse and multiethnic city of Budapest, where the process of industrialization and urbanization was extraordinarily rapid. In this con-text of social disruption, cosmopolitanism came to have a generally negative connotation with a strongly Semitic association, suggesting an interrelated set of dichotomies between Jew-ish/modern/urban/cosmopolitan and Hungarian/authentic/rural/’landed’. The emphasis on land owner-ship and particular forms of labour productivity in traditional Hungarian peasant values has reinforced the devaluation and social exclusion of Roma and Jews due to their historically distinctive roles in the changing Hungarian economy. In the postsocialist period, as Hungarians long for full recognition of their Europeanness and achievement of a ‘normal life’ (Fehervary 2002) in the context of resilient, long-standing tensions between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ Europe (Balibar 2009), older discourses regarding the threatened Hungarian nation are easily resuscitated with new variations. Exploring the contours of these old and new discourses about the threats to Hungarianness, this essay ultimately illustrates some of the limitations to cosmopolitanism as a future vision for European citizenship.

Galin Tihanov George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary, University of London, [email protected]

Cosmopolitanism in the Discursive Landscape of Modernity Thinking historically about cosmopolitanism invites us (a) to understand how ideas of cosmopolitanism and a cosmopolitan world order have been legitimized or challenged; (b) to offer a hypothesis about the principal function of discourses of cosmopolitanism in modern societies (by ’modern’ one would con-sensually mean societies since roughly the last quarter of the 18th century), or, to put it differently, to begin to recognize the specific place of cosmopolitanism in the discursive landscape of modernity; and c) to identify the historically evolving domains (political, artistic, scholarly, etc.) in which ideas and senti-ments of cosmopolitanism have been articulated. In my paper I focus at more length on (b) and (c). I begin by constructing a hypothesis about the underlying function discourses of cosmopolitanism perform in modernity. Once the dual nature of these discourses is elucidated, I concentrate on their domains of ar-ticulation, limiting my examples to political philosophy and the history of comparative literature, with


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particular emphasis on two enduring ideas with Enlightenment provenance (the idea of eternal peace and that of world literature), whose afterlives I address selectively in order to expand and detail my argument.

Elena Trubina Professor, Institute for Social and Political Studies, Ural Federal University, [email protected]

Multiscalar Cosmopolitanism and Relational Legacy: On the Selective Appropriation of the Neoliberal Globalization Discourse The philosopher Martha Nussbaum believes that it is possible to extend the scope of one’s affective ties and draws a map of the world composed of concentric circles (humanity as a whole is the largest). This is to suggest that national borders shouldn’t stop one from feeling a cosmopolitan solidarity with geopoliti-cally remote people. These and similar normative assumptions are problematized by a range of empirical studies that show just how controversially distance, scale, affect, and identity are interconnected in people’s affiliations, attachments, and cosmopolitan predilections. The comments on the possible collu-sion of academic debates and media discourses with transnational corporations and public-policy circles are convincingly made. In this paper, I argue that Russia provides an interesting empirical context for illuminating how selectively the neoliberal globalization discourse is cajoled into assemblages of authori-tarian politics and digitized tele-technologies. I address the ways in which the theories and practices of cosmopolitanism co-exist with those of division. In particular, the argument—that the problems of under-development do not come from the global economy itself but lie mainly in the societies themselves—gets appropriated by the nationalist creative workers in order to popularize the hierarchical core–periphery divide within the country, with the core defined as cosmopolitan and the rest as parochial and backward. Empirically, this paper attempts to map out how the connections with others have been established and maintained among different scale levels: an individual life, friends and family, community, city, nation, and the planet. The historical shift from the limited geographic and social mobility characteristic of the social-ist years to the new territorial and organizational configuration that emerged during the transition years is taken into consideration. Many Russians take spatial freedom to be the most valuable achievement of these new times. The tourists’ encounters with different urban experiences, a chance ‘to see how people live elsewhere’ (a phrase from many interviews), make them more critical toward the things they see at home. On the other hand, as more and more Russian regions, at least through the Internet, become in-cluded in the patterns of global system change, their various legacies become included in these transfor-mations in ways that will often amplify locally established relationships of power. In particular, I look at how the Russian citizens’ strengthening connections with the world may interact, not only with a dark and malicious gloating over various misfortunes that others are subjected to, but with an indifference to the planet and living things.

Ksenija Vidmar Horvat Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, [email protected]

Patriotic Cosmopolitanism? Rethinking Cosmopolitanism from a Western Balkan’s Per-spective The paper examines the concept of cosmopolitanism as it has been elaborated in current sociological thought. Cosmopolitanism is governed by an ethos of global concern for the humanity, especially the de-privileged and marginalized, and is an advocate of a just global order in which the ‘others’ take part in the postnational social contract as equals. Both these missions, however, can be accomplished only when cosmopolitan subject becomes actively engaged in local social life. Confronting the cosmopolitan dis-course, articulated through the idealized figure of the stranger, it is argued that the real migrating strang-ers and the ‘aliens’ of today’s world are indeed dislocated and dispossessed of their native homelands; but it is their exclusion and suffer which unfolds within the localized territories of the nation states, not an abstract world of global citizens, which forces their up-rootedness to become a re-localized trauma. In the first part, the author thus argues that cosmopolitanism needs to reclaim its locality; only this way, it can become perceived as a legitimate actor in the definition of national culture and its openness towards the ‘strangers’. The second part of the paper examines the politics of reterritorialization and re-localization thorough the case of the post-Yugoslav remembered ‘cosmopolitanism’. The concluding argument is that


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critical theory of cosmopolitanism needs to rebuild in its epistemology a historical perspective and make the cosmopolitan agenda an integral part of citizenship. This means a redefined relationship between cosmopolitanism and patriotism which has to be reflected in educational curricula.

Andrew Vincent Professor, Dep. of Politics, University of Sheffield, [email protected]

Reluctant Cosmopolitanism: The Problem of Cosmopolitanism The critical intuition I am wending my way uneasily around is that it is now de rigueur (in some circles) to be cosmopolitan, almost equivalent to being humanitarian, tolerant or liberal-minded. Alternatives to cosmopolitanism can thus be too horrible to contemplate. This sense of moral or legal rightness attached to cosmopolitanism makes me intellectually uneasy. However I am no less—if not more—uncomfortable with the various critics of cosmopolitanism, an assorted band of nationalists, culturalists, multiculturalists, variants on postcolonialism and postmodernism, who all strike me as even more critically in error. In one sense I am seeking a via media. The structure of my talk is to very briefly sketch some genealogy (I say genealogy in the sense of not seeing progress as paramount in articulating the concept of cosmopolitan-ism), and further to comment on some perplexing etymology and provenance to the idea of cosmopolitan-ism. I then consider briefly some of the traditional arguments on cosmopolitanism, which in my reading hovers mainly around moral and legal claims. In criticizing the various moral and legal accounts I also raise difficulties with some of the more standard critiques of cosmopolitanism. Finally I turn to what I think is a somewhat neglected component of argument in cosmopolitanism, namely its political rendition. This later idea best encapsulates for me the sense of a reluctant cosmopolitan.

Aaron C. Vlasak Humanities Faculty Fellow, Syracuse University, NY, [email protected]

Plato’s Kunikos Kosmopolitēs Many are willing to ascribe certain cosmopolitan principles of justice to Socrates. This is not surprising as the later cosmopolitans claimed a Socratic heritage. Few are willing to extend such principles to Plato. The philosophic dog as the image of the ideal political leader that we see in Republic, Book II seems to confirm this common reading. The dog, we are told, is friendly with the familiar and angry at the strange. If this were Plato’s ideal, indeed he would not be cosmopolitan. His recommended treatment of strangers would amount to a clear denial of Kant’s cosmopolitan right to hospitality. I argue, however, that on Plato’s own terms it is irrational to get angry at strangers. This is patently clear from the discussion of misology and misanthropy in the Phaedo. The mistake of misologues and misanthropes is basically the same. Misologues grow to hate ideas after their unwarranted beliefs are continually debunked. Similarly, misanthropes grow to hate people after their unwarranted trust in people is continually betrayed. Both misologues and misanthropes precisely make the mistake of the Republic dog. They are friendly with the familiar without a good experience. In a dog-like way, they make claims and trust people without good reason. Such a disposition is bound to be upset and tend toward the other dog-like disposition, that of believing in nothing and hating people for no good reason. Along these lines, to say the Republic dog is philosophic is to make the philosopher out to be either a fool or a nihilist. The true philosopher, of course, is neither. Rather than the true philosopher, the image of the political leader in the form of the dog depicts the realistic leader, who Plato would call the ‘philosopher in exile.’ This realistic image is juxtaposed to the ideal ruler, the true philosopher, someone like Socrates, deserving of the epithet, kunikos kosmopolitēs. Plato and Socrates share a certain cosmopolitan ideal of justice, a right to hospitality. An important differ-ence between the Kantian and the Socratic/Platonic right to hospitality is that the Kantian version is founded upon the presumption of humanity in the stranger, whereas the Socratic/Platonic version is founded upon the refusal to presume anything in advance of a good or bad experience. Owing to the fre-quent misuse of the concept of humanity in politics, I conclude by suggesting, the Socratic/Platonic right to hospitality better serves us than the Kantian.

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