Chris Rumford
Cosmopolitanism and Europe
Abstract
Cosmopolitan
perspectives on contemporary social and political issues have made
inroads into EU studies, despite official EU discourse making no
reference to Europeans as cosmopolitans. There are three main
dimensions to the cosmopolitanization of the EU studies agenda:
(i) a rethinking of transnationalism and globalization in relation
to the EU; (ii) an increasing interest in the social dimensions of
Europeanization; and (iii) a growing multi-disciplinarity in the
study of contemporary Europe. There are several reasons for the
increased interest in cosmopolitanism: a growing disenchantment
with nationalism; recognition of the importance of global civil
society; the 'cosmopolitan democracy' thesis advanced by Archibugi
and Held; and the growing importance of human rights as a
benchmark for democracy. Cosmopolitanism encourages a shift from a
concern with the role of the nation-state in Europe to a broader
sense of its role in the world, and relativizes Europe and the EU
by placing them in a global context.
Gerard Delanty
What does it mean to be a 'European'?
Abstract
The paper
explores the notion of Europeanism, asking the question: what does
it mean to be a European? In much the same terms as in Michael
Walzer's often-cited essay 'What does it mean to be an American?',
Walzer's analysis will serve as a point of departure for a
discussion of different conceptions of European self-understanding.
Some points of contrast will be made between American hyphenated
identities and European identity, conceived of in terms of a
notion of cosmopolitanism.
Ben Rosamond
Globalization, the ambivalence of European integration and
the possibilities for a post-disciplinary EU studies
Abstract
Using the work of Manuel
Castells as a starting point, this article explores the ambivalent
relationship between globalization and European integration and
the variety of ways in which the mainstream political science of
the EU has attempted to deal with this issue. The analysis here
suggests that various 'mainstreaming' disciplinary norms induce
types of work that fail to address fully the somewhat paradoxical
and counter-intuitive range of possible relationships between
globalization and European integration. The article explores
critically four possible analytical ways out of this
paradox--abandonment of the concept of globalization, the
development of definition precision in globalization studies, the
reorientation of work to focus on globalization as discourse, and
inter- and post-disciplinarity. The argument suggests that
orthodox discussions of the relationship require a notion of
social geography that sits at odds with much of the literature on
globalization and while greater dialogue between disciplines is to
be welcomed, a series of profound epistemological questions need
to be confronted if studies of the interplay between global and
social process are to be liberated from their disciplinary chains.
Nick Stevenson
European cosmopolitanism and civil society
Abstract
The
discussion of European cosmopolitanism and civil society has
failed to take questions of culture seriously enough. While
remaining sympathetic to liberal forms of cosmopolitanism, this
article considers the view that such proposals fail to make space
for the 'Other'. In the context of histories of nationalist
violence, masculinism and consumerism this article discusses the
charge that ideas of European civilization need to be reconsidered.
In the final part of the article, I discuss the view that cultural
feminism and certain versions of multiculturalism have much to
contribute towards the European project. However, at this point, I
seek to distance myself from essentialist arguments in respect of
identity. A generative European cosmopolitanism would do well to
take questions of cultural domination seriously without reducing
the complexity of modern identities.
Paul Statham and Emily
Gray
The public sphere and debates about europe in Britain
Abstract
This article undertakes
an analysis of British public debates on European integration by
recourse to an original data set on political claims-making. The
public sphere is conceptualized as a space where citizens interact
through their acts of public communication. Such public
communications are an important source of the Europe-building
process, because they potentially provide public inputs to the
elite-led processes of European political institutional
integration. Our empirical findings show that British public
debates are internalized within the nation-state rather than
creating links to supra- or transnational European polities. In
addition, we find relatively low levels of civil society
engagement compared to that of political elites, and a high level
of political competition between the two major political parties,
Labour and Conservative. Overall, we argue that elite ambivalence
to Britain's position within the European Union has created this
climate of uncertainty and political competition over Europe.
Eleonore Kofman
Figures of the cosmopolitan
Abstract
In
contemporary European social and political thought,
cosmopolitanism is frequently closely linked with the modern
cultural citizen, who is open to the variety of global cultures
and can participate equally at al levels of society from the local
to the global. The cosmopolitan or privileged national moves
freely and, from a secure vantage point, is at home anywhere.
However what I suggest in this paper is that there is a darker
dimension, which is too easily forgotten in the celebratory
figures of the cosmopolitan based on unfettered movement and
consumption of places. There is another cosmopolitan figure which
draws upon an ambiguous historical baggage where the rootless and
flexible outsider was treated with suspicion and hostility. In
20th century Europe, cosmopolitanism often epitomised the Jew with
divided allegiances and little attachment to the land, and more
often at home in the city, unlike indigenous populations. Today
the fear of divided loyalties and transnational political
participation falls in particular upon Europe's Muslim populaitons,
who must demonstrate that they are not cosmopolitan. Thus what is
interpreted positively in the privileged national is deemed to be
negative and problematic in the migrant.
