ABSTRACT
Attempts to define “cosmopolitanism” often tend to distinguish between the political and cultural connotations of the term. On the one hand, cosmopolitanism, as a form of global citizenship, has specific political and institutional implications related to global governance, world democracy and moral debates regarding human rights. On the other hand, many scholars argue that cosmopolitanism also refers to the cultural realm of citizenship and is therefore bound up in questions of identity, community and belonging in a globalized world. In other words, as Ulf Hannerz puts it, “cosmopolitanism has two faces … one is more cultural, the other more political” (2006: 9). Hannerz (2006: 5) captures the “two faces” of cosmopolitanism in his list of the various things “cosmopolitan” can stand for:
[S]omeone with many varied stamps in his or her passport; or a city or a neighborhood with a mixed population; or, with a capital C, a women’s magazine, at least at one time seen as a bit daring in its attitudes; or an individual of uncertain patriotic reliability, quite possibly a Jew; or someone who likes weird, exotic cuisines; or an advocate of world government; or, again with a capital C, a mixed drink combining vodka, cranberry juice, and other ingredients.
