The provocative title of this book is deliberately and challengingly universalist, matching the theoretically experimental essays, where contributors try different ideas to answer distinct concerns regarding cosmopolitanism. Leading anthropologists explore what cosmopolitanism means in the context of everyday life, variously viewing it as an aspect of kindness and empathy, as tolerance, hospitality and openness, and as a defining feature of pan-human individuality. The chapters thus advance an existential critique of abstract globalization discourse. The book enriches interdisciplinary debates about hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary cosmopolitanism as a political and moral project, examining the form of its lived effects and offering new ideas and case studies to work with.

The provocative title of this book is deliberately and challengingly universalist, matching the theoretically experimental essays, where contributors try different ideas to answer distinct concerns regarding cosmopolitanism. Leading anthropologists explore what cosmopolitanism means in the context of everyday life, variously viewing it as an aspect of kindness and empathy, as tolerance, hospitality and openness, and as a defining feature of pan-human individuality. The chapters thus advance an existential critique of abstract globalization discourse. The book enriches interdisciplinary debates about hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary cosmopolitanism as a political and moral project, examining the form of its lived effects and offering new ideas and case studies to work with.

Preface

Introduction: We the Cosmopolitans: Framing the Debate
Lisette Josephides

Chapter 1. Citizens of Everything: The Aporetics of Cosmopolitanism
Ronald Stade

Chapter 2. The Capacities of Anyone: Accommodating the Universal Human Subject as Value and in Space
Nigel Rapport

Chapter 3. Cosmopolitan Morality in the British Immigration and Asylum System
Alexandra Hall

Chapter 4. Experiences of Pain: A Gateway to Cosmopolitan Subjectivity?
Anne Sigfrid Gronseth

Chapter 5. Cosmopolitanism as Welcoming the Other/Imperilling the Self: Ethics and Early Encounters between Lyons Missionaries and West African Rulers Prior to Colonial Rule
Marc Schiltz

Chapter 6. The Cartoon Controversy and the Possibility of Cosmopolitanism
Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Conclusion
Alexandra Hall

Notes on contributors