Session Information
13 SES 05, Long Paper Session
Long Paper Session
Contribution
Skeptical and negative approaches to cosmopolitanism emphasize the dangers inherent in a conceptual outlook that merely masks the growing asymmetries developing in new forms of imperialism. While these concerns are considered legitimate and important, we wish to defend that the conceptual core and potential of the cosmopolitan idea lies chiefly in its critical dimension. The concept of cosmopolitanism as inherently critical allows for a viable characterization of those processes that cannot be adequately captured under the headings of globalism or globalization. Critical cosmopolitanism is interpreted as vital for a moral and political re-imagining of a transnational future other than new versions of Western economic imperialism. Analyzing the historical documents of the regional conferences held in Asia, Africa and South America preceding the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in 1993, we will show how in a pragmatic realm a critical cosmopolitan space opened up. The analysis shows that the reaffirmation of the universality of human rights in 1993 is neither adequately captured within static culturalist approaches nor through a static understanding of universalism, but requires a critical cosmopolitan perspective. Drawing from the historical study, and further developing our notion of critical cosmopolitanism in terms of “mediation” (Benhabib, 2006), “translation” (Butler, 2000), and “affirmation through critique” (Todd, 2010), we want to make a case for reminding ourselves of the critical core of the cosmopolitan idea that is able to recuperate some modernist ideals while taking into account the post-modern criticisms. This paper is thus meant as a contribution in defending the critical potential of the concept of cosmopolitanism in clear distinction from globalization. We believe that there is a need to articulate pressing moral, social, and political concerns from a critical cosmopolitan perspective which does not enhance the already dominant voice of economic imperialism, instrumentalization and formalization in education informed by the discourse on globalization. Particularly within human rights learning a critical cosmopolitan perspective is of vital importance if human rights education is to be a genuinely emancipatory endeavor.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Adami, R. (2012). Reconciling Universality and Particularity through a Cosmopolitan Outlook on Human Rights. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 4(2), 22–37. Benhabib, S. (2006). Another Cosmopolitanism. Oxford University Press. Butler, J., Laclau, E., & \vZi\vzek, S. (2000). Contingency, hegemony, universality: contemporary dialogues on the left. Verso Books. Cavell, S. (1991). Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome: The Constitution of Emersonian Perfectionism: The Carus Lectures, 1988 (Vol 19). University of Chicago Press. Cheah, P., & Robbins, B. (1998). Cosmopolitics : thinking and feeling beyond the nation. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press. Delanty, G. (2006). The cosmopolitan imagination: critical cosmopolitanism and social theory. The British journal of sociology, 57(1), 25–47. Hansen, D. T. (2008). Curriculum and the idea of a cosmopolitan inheritance. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(3), 289–312. Pogge, T. W. M. (2008). World poverty and human rights : cosmopolitan responsibilities and reforms. Cambridge: Polity. Rabinow, P. (1986). Representations are social facts: Modernity and post-modernity in anthropology. Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography, 239. Schumann, C. (2013). Boundedness beyond reification: cosmopolitan teacher education as critique. Ethics & Global Politics, 5(4). Todd, S. (2010). Toward an Imperfect Education: Facing Humanity, Rethinking Cosmopolitanism. Paradigm Publishers. Turner, B. S. (2002). Cosmopolitan virtue, globalization and patriotism. Theory, Culture & Society, 19(1-2), 45–63. Online documents from UN archives: UN, (1992) Report of the Regional Meeting for Africa of the World Conference on Human Rights (November 1992) http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/6b3a3819c4637426802569030037ed3e?Opendocument access date: 270113 UN, (1993) Report of the Regional Meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Conference on Human Rights (January 1993) http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/4951ffcc8f2e7d4f802569030037ed3f?Opendocument access date: 270113 UN, (1993a) Report of the Regional Meeting for Asia of the World Conference on Human Rights (April 1993) http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/9d23b88f115fb827802569030037ed44?Opendocument access date: 270113
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.