Cosmopolitan Risk Community and China's Climate Governance

Ulrich Beck asserts that global risks, such as climate change, generate a form of ‘compulsory cosmopolitanism’, which ‘glues’ various actors into collective action. Through an analysis of emerging ‘cosmopolitan risk communities’ in Chinese climate governance, this paper points out a ‘blind spot’ in the theorisation of cosmopolitan belonging and an associated inadequacy in explaining shifting power-relations. The paper addresses this problem by engaging with the intersectionality of the cosmopolitan space. It is argued that cosmopolitan belonging is a form of performative identity. Its key characteristic lies in a ‘liberating prerogative’, which enables individuals to participate in the solution of common problems creatively. It is this liberating prerogative that coerces the state out of political monopoly and marks the cosmopolitan moment

The impact of social identity and cultural capital on different ethnic student groups at university

This research examines the experience of students from different student groups in higher education in Britain, asking the following questions: Is there any effect of different ‘University Cultures’ on students’ experience of higher education? How do different groups of students understand the concept of ‘belonging’ and ‘identity’ within a University? Do different student groups have different expectations and experiences of higher education? The research will draw on a range of social theories such as Social Capital, Cosmopolitanisation, Identity and Belonging and Mobility, assessing their relevance to the experience of different ethnic students in higher education (HE). Three HE institutions will participate in this project; a large comprehensive University, a campus based old University and a specialist college. A variety of quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed to maximise the breadth and depth of information gathered. Data collection will include a large scale questionnaire, focus groups and educational life history interviews with students from three differing institutions. Outcomes will inform the national debate about degree outcomes for different student groups and satisfaction levels between some student groups

Remembering global disasters and the construction of cosmopolitan memory

Debates on the relationship between media and memory have recently focused on the potential of globally mediated events to expand collective memory beyond national borders, to what Levy and Sznaider (2006, 2010) have described as "cosmopolitan memory". This article critically engages with the concept of cosmopolitan memory and provides an empirical contribution to the relevant debate drawing upon a study of focus group discussions with Greek audiences remembering global disasters. The article argues that the memories of these events place audience members within a global community of viewers simultaneously witnessing the same events. However, they do not necessarily challenge the primacy of the nation as a moral community, therefore lacking the moral dimension implicit in the concept of cosmopolitan memory

The Cosmopolitanization of the EU's Borders?

For centuries the political geography of Europe has been based around borders of its nation states. The ability of the nation state to control its territory has been essential to the practices of war and diplomacy, the legitimacy of governments, immigration policies and trade. But processes of globalization and EU integration have transformed the borders of the European nation state. While globalization theorists tend to posit an opening up of borders to global flows of capital, information and people, the changed nature of the border is itself often left unexamined and is assumed to have simply disappeared. But scholars and activists are now arguing that, rather than fading away, borders are proliferating in the globalized world and their functions spreading into many different areas of society. This article examines the transformation of the `classical border of the nation-state into its recent forms, using the work of theorists such as Balibar, Mezzadra, Rigo and Walters. It then examines how these theories have been applied in recent literature, and in particular Chris Rumfords analysis of the European Neighbourhood policy and his argument that this represents a `cosmopolitanisation of European borders

Spontaneous order and relational sociology:from the Scottish Enlightenment to human figurations

If viewed from a long-term and large-scale perspective, human interdependencies today can be seen as approaching species integration on a worldwide level. However, emergent worldwide processes of integration and differentiation tend to be reduced to static conceptthings such as “governmentality”, “globalization”, “cosmopolitanization”, “mobilities”, and“networks”, helping to obscure the mundane processes of institution formation, in particular the tenacious endurance of the nation-state. This paper argues that the pathological realism of neoliberal globalization today can be more adequately approached by engaging with the historical precursors of the so-called “relational turn” in contemporary sociology. The earlier relational sociology of the Scottish enlightenment, particularly Adam Ferguson (1767), Adam Smith (1776) and David Hume (1739) developed ideas of spontaneous order and such related concepts as “the invisible hand” and “unintended consequences” in an attempt to understand and control the rapid transformation of Scotland, a relatively under-developed economy on the edge of Europe. The Scottish spontaneous order tradition is compared to Elias’s idea of “figuration” as an unplanned but patterned process of increasingly complex and opaque social interdependencies and functional democratization. This process appears to have reached definite limits. Humanity is ensnared in a compelling global double-bind process of armed states that continue to threaten, endanger and fear each other, and a pervasive elite belief in the spontaneous efficiency and self-correcting mechanisms of the global “magic market”.<br/

A Cosmopolitan response to the 'war on terror'

This article explores the relevance and the significance of cosmopolitanism as an approach to understanding the ‘war on terror’. The article details how cosmopolitanism affords a perspective through which it is possible to critique and deconstruct the ‘war on terror’ and create narratives which include the impact of harmful state practices. The facets of cosmopolitanism which make it relevant to the ‘war on terror’ include its emphasis on justice and human rights. It also accounts for interactions between the global level and the local level, which are necessary to understanding the contemporary discourses of securitization and deviancy which are prominent in the ‘war on terror’. Through discussing the value of cosmopolitanism, and its concepts of human rights, equality, humanity, ethics, responsibility and justice, the article demonstrates how although the ‘war on terror’ has been constructed to defend and uphold such values, it has eroded these very values and in doing so, it facilitates the radicalization process

Criminalizing Communism: Transnational Mnemopolitics in Europe

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union has intensified calls for the reconstruction of a common European remembrance of the continent's multiple totalitarian legacies. Various political initiatives to condemn, along with counter-attempts to re-legitimize, the legacy of communism have emerged at the pan-European level. Each aspires to leave an imprint on the symbolic moral order and the legal regime of the broader European community. This article builds a conceptual framework for understanding the contestation of political and juridical regulation of the transnational remembrance of totalitarian communist regimes in Europe. Critically engaging the concept of cosmopolitanization of memory, it is argued that mnemonic identity in Europe is being transformed via new claims on “European memory.” These claims are being made by various East European actors seeking recognition of the region's particular historical legacies as part of the pan-European normative verdict on twentieth-century totalitarianisms

The ‘credibility paradox’ in China’s science communication: Views from scientific practitioners

In contrast to increasing debates on China’s rising status as a global scientific power, issues of China’s science communication remain under-explored. Based on 21 in-depth interviews in three cities, this article examines Chinese scientists’ accounts of the entangled web of influence which conditions the process of how scientific knowledge achieves (or fails to achieve) its civic authority. A main finding of this study is a ‘credibility paradox’ as a result of the over-politicisation of science and science communication in China. Respondents report that an absence of visible institutional endorsements renders them more public credibility and better communication outcomes. Thus, instead of exploiting formal channels of science communication, scientists interviewed were more keen to act as ‘informal risk communicators’ in grassroots and private events. Chinese scientists’ perspectives on how to earn public support of their research sheds light on the nature and impact of a ‘civic epistemology’ in an authoritarian state

The Football Supporter in a Cosmopolitan Epoch

Arguably, the later process of globalization served to reshape how socializations are fostered and maintained across time and space. Additionally, in the last fifteen years a new phenomenon that reinvigorated time and space compression has emerged: social media. Moreover, it is argued that the conjunction of those processes can be seen as taking place on a distinct Age - the Anthropocene or the cosmopolitan epoch. Arguably those processes have the capacity to alter the way individuals enact their football fandom In this light, this paper seeks to conceptualize one particular football support identity that takes into account this fragmented period. Based on an 18-month ethnographic research with supporters of one English Premier League, this paper conceptualizes the football fan in the Anthropocene as the cosmopolitan flâneur. I conclude by pointing out to some prospective avenues for future research based on a cosmopolitan imagination