Synopses & Reviews
The dream of a cosmopolitical utopia has been around for thousands of years. Yet the promise of being locally situated while globally connected and mobile has never seemed more possible than today. Through a classical sociological approach, this book analyzes the political, technological and cultural systems underlying cosmopolitanism.
Review
"This book provides a much needed sociological approach to cosmopolitanism, which they show to be both an empirically measurable phenomenon and a normative critique of globalization. The authors demonstrate the sociological significance of cosmopolitanism in an imaginative and methodologically sophisticated way. They have made an invaluable contribution to the growing literature on cosmopolitanism." - Gerard Delanty, Professor of Sociology and Social & Political Thought, University of Sussex, UK
"This book provides a carefully detailed dissection of cosmopolitanism, as theory and as sets of practices. The authors have produced an extremely useful resource for future analysis of the placing of cosmopolitanism in the emerging world dis/order." - John Urry, Distinguished Professor, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK
"Dissecting the concept and its uses, scrutinizing its various dimensions, and delineating its various ideal types, the book is highly illuminating and instructive as to what can and should be understood under cosmopolitanism, and how can the phenomena of cosmopolitanism be studied. Scholars of globalization will find in this book a highly useful orientation guide to the various sociological theories of cosmopolitanism, and in particular a fresh and empirically based synthesis that directs to possible research on the subject." - Professor Motti Regev, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, The Open University of Israel
About the Author
GAVIN KENDALL is Professor of Sociology at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His research interests include social theory, social order and the relationship between culture and socio-technical problems. His previous books include
Using Foucaults Methods (with Gary Wickham),
Understanding Culture (with Gary Wickham) and
State Democracy and Globalization (with Roger King).
IAN WOODWARD is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Sociology at Griffith University, Australia and a Faculty Fellow of Yale Universitys Center for Cultural Sociology, USA. In addition to publishing many papers on the cultural aspects of cosmopolitanism, he has written extensively on consumption practices, subject-object relations and material culture. He is the author of Understanding Material Culture.
ZLATKO SKRBIS is Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests are located in the intersecting area of migration, nationalism, and globalization. He is the author of Long-Distance Nationalism and Constructing Singapore (with Michael Barr), and his recent articles include papers in the Sociological Review, Theory, Culture & Society and Ethnic and Racial Studies. He is a lead investigator on a longitudinal study of Australian young people and their life trajectories.
Table of Contents
Preface
Problems in the Field of Cosmopolitanism
The Question of Belonging: the Nation State and Beyond
Cosmopolitanism and the Political Realm
Cosmopolitanism as a Political Lifestyle: Morality, Technology and Style
Thinking, Feeling and Acting Cosmopolitan: The Ideal Types and their Expression in Everyday Cultural Fields
The Cosmopolitan Symbolic Universe and Communities of Sentiment
Conclusion: Cosmopolitanism as an Intellectual and Political Project
References