Cosmopolitanism as critical theory: an analysis of the ethics, methodology and practice of critical cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitan thought in recent scholarship is often used in either a prescriptive or a descriptive manner. It is thus most commonly understood as a research agenda for the prescription of various ethico-political projects or a description of the social and political world beyond national frameworks. In both cases cosmopolitanism seems to be mostly understood as a set of assumptions about the social world. This thesis aims to underline cosmopolitanism’s critical characteristics and its capability to engage with the social world in a critical and therefore transformative manner. There has been relatively scarce scholarship on critical cosmopolitanism, a gap that the thesis closes by focusing on cosmopolitanism’s capacity for critical intervention. In this study, the contribution of cosmopolitanism to critical thought is evaluated and advanced. Possessing an unparalleled ability to understand things and change them in the light of universalism, cosmopolitanism can be explored as a kind of critical theory that has a distinct agenda and normative guidance. In order to achieve this, the thesis looks at a version of critical theory that is in certain respects most akin to cosmopolitanism, that is, Axel Honneth’s critical theory and his theory of recognition, and connects the two in a way that shows both the cosmopolitanism’s possession of critical heory’s main features and its differences from Honneth’s critical theory. It is proposed that cosmopolitanism can be regarded as a critical theory with the concept of recognition as its main framework, but also that it differs from Honneth’s theory in its understanding of world disclosure and holding to more universalist and utopian claims. While cosmopolitanism can be understood as being critical, it can also be used as an enhancement of the existing conceptualisation of recognition relationships through cosmopolitanism’s universalist dimensions

Cosmopolitanism

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Neighbourhood environmental influences on older adults’ physical activities and social participation in Singapore: a photovoice study

Physical activities and social participation have vast health benefits for older adults and are also known to influence each other in everyday lives of older adults. In the quest for healthy ageing in place, it is vital to investigate the role of neighbourhood environmental factors in maintaining and/or initiating physical activities and social participation in older adults. Using the photovoice method, this qualitative research aims to examine how the physical and social neighbourhood environment influences physical activities, social participation, and instances where they occur together among 30 older adults in three Singapore neighbourhoods. A thematic analysis of 820 photographs, their descriptions, and 21 semi-structured individual and group interviews reveals that participants' physical activities and social participation are influenced by neighbourhood features during everyday movements (themes related to walking trips and resting places), and at destination nodes (themes on destinations and events where people often met and/or accessed amenities and services). Environmental qualities grounded in the local context affect older adults’ outdoor activities. Physical activities and social participation in older adults may be planned or spontaneous, occurring independently, simultaneously or one after another in supportive neighbourhood environments

Exploring facilitators and barriers of older adults’ outdoor mobility: a walk-along study in Singapore

Background: outdoor mobility is critical to the quality of life and health of older adults. The neighbourhood environment is one of the factors that influences mobility, but it is often investigated reductively as a direct correlate to movement.Methods: this study undertakes an exploratory approach to community-dwelling older adults’ perceived environmental facilitators and barriers to their outdoor mobility in three Singapore neighbourhoods using walk-along interviews. Ninety participants were recruited through a mix of purposive and convenience sampling.Results: thematic analysis revealed key built environment features that related to older adults' outdoor mobility. The facilitators were greenery and green spaces, even, obstruction-free and non-slip footpaths, sheltered walkways, and neighbourhood centre and amenities. The barriers included uneven and obstructed footpaths, lack of shelter or shade, poor legibility (lighting and wayfinding), and overhead bridges. More importantly, the analysis of facilitators and barriers revealed the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between the built environment and older adults’ mobility experiences: pleasure and comfort, psychosocial factors and motivation, materiality, temporality, and adaptive problem-solving behaviour.Conclusions: compared to international studies, thermal comfort and temporality had a more pronounced role in influencing mobility of older adults in high-rise, high-density tropical environment. Our findings add to the growing research on investigating health and place relationship to understand why, where, when and how older adults move through local life-space areas

Ageing-friendly neighbourhoods in Singapore, Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America: an annotated bibliography

Provides a sense of the scope of, issues in, and discourse on ageing-friendly neighbourhoodsIncludes contemporary approaches, theoretical concepts, methodologies, and understandings of ageing-friendly neighbourhoodsBrings together the emerging body of work from Singapore, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and North Americ

Association of neighborhood social capital with quality of life among older people in Singapore

Objective: to examine how neighborhood-based cognitive and structural social capital are associated with individual quality of life among a sample of community-dwelling older adults in Singapore.Method: using survey data from 981 older adults (aged 55 years and above) in nine residential neighborhoods, multilevel models simultaneously estimated the effects of independent variables at the individual and neighborhood levels on quality of life (CASP-12).Results: social cohesion (β = 1.39, p &lt; .01) and associational membership (β = 19.16, p &lt; .01) were associated with higher quality of life in models adjusted for neighborhood facilities and individual sociodemographics, social networks, functional limitations, global cognitive status, and medical conditions.Discussion: the results suggest that place-based or neighborhood social capital may be important for older person’s well-being. It identifies the contribution of structural (associational membership) and cognitive (social cohesion) social capital to the well-being of community-dwelling older adults in Singapore.<br/

Meaning of age-friendly neighbourhood: an exploratory study with older adults and key informants in Singapore

This study explores the concept of age-friendly neighbourhood as understood by older adults and key informants (local service providers, professionals and public officials) in Singapore. Data are collected through key informant interviews (n = 15) and focus group discussion (n = 80, age 52–82 years) in three study neighbourhoods in Singapore that have relatively high percentages of older populations. Older people and key informants are asked to describe in their own words what an age-friendly neighbourhood means to them. Qualitative content analyses are performed on the interview and discussion data to arrive at a thematic understanding of age-friendly neighbourhood in Singapore. Inclusiveness, social environment, physical environment, sense of place and safety are five key characteristics that participants have used to describe age-friendly neighbourhood. While there are widely established frameworks on age-friendly cities and communities, the findings highlight that context-specific and experiential understandings of age-friendly neighbourhood initiatives are important

Exposure to Black Carbon during Bicycle Commuting–Alternative Route Selection

Traffic air pollution significantly influences cyclists using cycling routes near main roads. We analyze the dependency of black carbon (BC) concentrations in relation to the proximity to their traffic sources. We performed static and mobile measurements of BC using aethalometers at chosen sites and cycling routes in Celje, Slovenia—static measurements at two road-side sites and an urban background site. Mobile measurements were performed simultaneously at an existing cycling route and an alternative route away from the busy roads. BC concentration apportioned to traffic decreases with the distance from the sources on the main road. The exposure of cyclists to BC can be greatly reduced by moving the cycling route away from busy roads, hence we propose an alternative route and show that traffic planning and management should include all modes of transport. Results imply that street intersections along the cycling routes influence the cyclists’ exposure and should be as few as possible when planning cycling routes in urban areas