Cosmopolitanism in Hard Times

This reference book provides the reader with an exhaustive array of epistemological, theoretical, and empirical explorations related to the field of cosmopolitanism studies. It considers the cosmopolitan perspective rather as a relevant approach to the understanding of some major issues related to globalization than as a subfield of global studies. In this unique contribution to conceptualizing, establishing, experiencing, and challenging cosmopolitanism, each chapter seizes the paradoxical dialectic of opening up and closing up, of enlightenment and counter-enlightenment, of hope and despair at work in the global world, while the volume as a whole insists on the moral, intellectual, structural, and historical resources that still make cosmopolitanism a real possibility — and not just wishful thinking — even in these hard times.Contributors include: John Agnew, Daniele Archibugi, Paul Bagguley, Esperança Bielsa, Estevão Bosco, Stéphane Chauvier, Daniel Chernilo, Vincenzo Cicchelli, VittorioCotesta, Stéphane Dufoix, David Held, Robert Holton, Yasmin Hussain, David Inglis, Lauren Langman, Pietro Maffettone, Sylvie Mesure, Magdalena Nowicka, Sylvie Octobre, Delphine Pagès-El Karaoui, Massimo Pendenza, Alain Policar, Frédéric Ramel,Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Hiro Saito, Camille Schmoll, Bryan S. Turner, Clive Walker, and Daniel J. Whelan. With an Afterword by Arjun Appadurai.

"This landmark collection brings the idea of cosmopolitanism out of the world of elite taste, education and worldliness into the complexities of identity, justice, sovereignty and mobility in our own times. The authors offer a critical way out of the current global crises of political and epidemiological lockdown." – Dr. Arjun Appadurai, New York University and The Hertie School, Berlin "Timely and important, Cosmopolitanism in Hard Times is a comprehensive edited collection written by outstanding scholars that stands as a major contribution to cosmopolitanism studies. This is a must read-book." – Professor Shujiro Yazawa, Hitotsubashi University and Seijo University, Tokyo "As the world is caught up in a whirlwind of multiple crises, we desperately need to read this remarkable collection of essays, assemble by two outstanding scholars, that challenges us in understanding the world of strangers and sets out the case for a cosmopolitan approach to contemporary global politics." – Professor Sari Hanafi, American University of Beirut, President of the International Sociological Association

Sylvie Mesure is Director of Research at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). Her Research Laboratory is the GEMASS (Groupe d’étude des méthodes de l’analyse sociologique de la Sorbonne). Vincenzo Cicchelli is an Associate Professor at University Paris Descartes (CEPED) (Université de Paris /Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)). He is currently the Director of International Relations at GRIP (Global Research Institute of Paris, University of Paris).