ABSTRACT
Cosmopolitanism as a theory and a way of life (praxis) goes back to the Cynics and Stoics who saw themselves as world citizens that are primarily loyal to the universal community of humanity (Nussbaum 2010 and Dallmayr 2003). While their ideal never left the “utopian imaginary of the Western tradition,” the realities of modern globalization made it re-emerge in the idea of “world governance within which cosmopolitan democracy can flourish” (Turner 2002: 48). Cosmopolitan democracy requires a form of multilayered citizenship and governance, which recognizes the “continuing significance of nation-states, while arguing for layers of governance to address broader and more global questions” (Held 2010: 306). According to this moderate form of cosmopolitanism, being a global citizen does not mean ignoring ignore local and national attachments and forms of belonging. The hope is that global citizenship will not only coexist with other forms of citizenship but it will grow out of them, thus reflecting the ability of individuals to continue the “highly abstractive leap from the local and dynastic to national and then to democratic consciousness” to a post-national level (Habermas 2001: 102).
