Cosmopolitanism
by
What is cosmopolitanism, and why does it matter? How can the communication of cosmopolitanism function as both a framework for the critique of power and a catalyst for imagining alternative orders? In addressing these questions, my aim is to recuperate cosmopolitanism as a normative project that challenges its Western conditions of possibility and recognizes vulnerable others as those with their own claims to humanity and justice. Our everyday life is saturated by images and stories of distant sufferers, whether refugees crossing the Mediterranean, war victims in Syria, or hurricane homeless in the Philippines. Mundane as these stories may appear to be in our everyday media flows, they are not insignificant. They are fundamental. This is not simply because they are there to inform us of world sufferings or campaigns for charity. They are fundamental because they maintain the self-definition of Western liberal democracies both as political regimes of national welfare and, crucially, as ethico-political projects of transnational solidarity in the name of “common humanity” (Linklater 2007). The heart of Western democracies lies not primarily in the political institutions of the nation, but rather in our capacity to feel, think, and act for distant others. And while some would reserve our...
This essay may be found on page 52 of the printed volume.