Cosmopolitanism in Hard Times

Book excerpt: This reference book provides the reader with an exhaustive array of epistemological, theoretical, and empirical explorations related to the field of cosmopolitanism studies. It considers the cosmopolitan perspective rather as a relevant approach to the understanding of some major issues related to globalization than as a subfield of global studies. In this unique contribution to conceptualizing, establishing, experiencing, and challenging cosmopolitanism, each chapter seizes the paradoxical dialectic of opening up and closing up, of enlightenment and counter-enlightenment, of hope and despair at work in the global world, while the volume as a whole insists on the moral, intellectual, structural, and historical resources that still make cosmopolitanism a real possibility — and not just wishful thinking — even in these hard times. Contributors include: John Agnew, Daniele Archibugi, Paul Bagguley, Esperança Bielsa, Estevão Bosco, Stéphane Chauvier, Daniel Chernilo, Vincenzo Cicchelli, VittorioCotesta, Stéphane Dufoix, David Held, Robert Holton, Yasmin Hussain, David Inglis, Lauren Langman, Pietro Maffettone, Sylvie Mesure, Magdalena Nowicka, Sylvie Octobre, Delphine Pagès-El Karaoui, Massimo Pendenza, Alain Policar, Frédéric Ramel, Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Hiro Saito, Camille Schmoll, Bryan S. Turner, Clive Walker, and Daniel J. Whelan. With an Afterword by Arjun Appadurai.