Cosmopolitan Studies

The Women of Durban's Dockside Sex Industry

by Henry Trotter

in Rob Pattman and Sultan Khan (eds.), Undressing Durban (Durban: Madiba Press, 2007), 441-452.

This article, "The Women of Durban's Dockside Sex Industry," looks at the lives of female prostitutes in... more This article, "The Women of Durban's Dockside Sex Industry," looks at the lives of female prostitutes in Durban's dockside sex sector. They solicit at a nightclub catering to foreign sailors. The paper considers their experiences as sex workers and how they deal with stigmatization, family concerns, chemical abuse, moral dilemmas, diseases, and violence. It assesses their fears and frustrations. And it ponders their dreams and longings for what they hope to achieve through this work.

The article concludes with the idea that dockside women are relatively empowered compared to their streetwalking & brothel-working counterparts. Since most hail from upcountry locales, they successfully live "double lives" that protect them from family and communal reprisal. Since their clients are foreign transients, the men pose no threat to their identities (they have no social power outside the dockside world). Since the women solicit from a safe nightclub, they retain the right of refusal. And because they're the knowledgeable locals, they choose the location of sex, which enhances their power to insist on condom-use.

Ironically, these upcountry women are perhaps the most cosmopolitan citizens of Durban as they entertain dozens of nationalities every evening.

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

Global Citizenship in 2040: Six Scenarios

by Vahid V. Motlagh

1- Placeless Brains Triumph, 2-Planetary Second Life, 3-Multicultural City Islands, 4-Cherished Mental Model, 5-Lagging Global Education, 6-Tribal Towers Tremble

After listening to a presentation that reviewed the scientific discoveries and technological developments,... more After listening to a presentation that reviewed the scientific discoveries and technological developments, participants in the workshop titled Global Placeless Brains at the conference Reconciling Babel – Education for cosmopolitanism were directed in a brief method based scenario planning exercise that was designed and run by the author.They were encouraged to do some “disciplined imagination” about the alternative futures of the global citizenship in 2040. One week after the workshop was concluded their written inputs were analyzed and subsequently six scenarios were developed and named. For more detail about how the tacit knowledge of the participants was tapped and thus documented as explicit knowledge see the Method section below

Symposium on Global Democracy: Introduction

by Raffaele Marchetti

Millward, P. (2010) ‘The Limits to Cosmopolitanism: English football fans at Euro 2008’ In: D. Burdsey (Ed.) Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues. Routledge: New York and Abingdon.

by Peter Millward

Displacing Androcracy: Cosmopolitan Partnerships in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Water

by Stefano Mercanti

Set against the backdrop of Gandhi’s Freedom Movement, Water pushes the boundaries of India’s male-dominant cultural... more Set against the backdrop of Gandhi’s Freedom Movement, Water pushes the boundaries of India’s male-dominant cultural narratives beyond patriarchal predicaments by questioning the religious tradition and the oppressive constraints imposed on Hindu widows. This paper aims to show how Sidhwa’s characters move toward more caring and life-enhancing scenarios by portraying relationships of mutual support in which human beings give evidence of ‘other’ possible patterns of construction of the self and forms of co-existence, thus overcoming the rigid discourses imposed by dominator hierarchies.

Tourism and cosmopolitanism: A view from below

by Noel B. Salazar

Salazar, Noel B. 2010. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology 1(1):55-69. [inaugural issue]

Based on long-term fieldwork in Indonesia and Tanzania, this
article sheds new light on the contested... more Based on long-term fieldwork in Indonesia and Tanzania, this
article sheds new light on the contested relationship between tourism and cosmopolitanism. The ethnographic findings shift the attention from tourists to key service providers as those accruing most cosmopolitan capital through the tourism encounter. Local tour guides are able to use their privileged contacts with foreign visitors to develop cross-cultural competencies and to enhance their own cosmopolitan status. They substantiate the idea that cosmopolitanism is no privilege of the rich and well-connected and that physical or spatial mobility is not a necessary condition to become cosmopolitan. Paradoxically, the guides’ dreams of becoming more cosmopolitan (and more modern and Western) can only materialise if they represent to tourists their lifeworld, including themselves, as frozen in both time and space, because it is exactly this kind of imaged and imagined difference tourism sells to tourists for the build-up of their own cosmopolitan capital.

Education for democratic citizenship: a review of research, policy and practice 1995-2005

by Audrey Osler

co-authored with Hugh Starkey Research Papers in Education, Volume 21, Issue 4 December 2006 , pages 433 - 466

This paper provides a synthesis of the scholarly literature on education for democratic citizenship (EDC) in the... more This paper provides a synthesis of the scholarly literature on education for democratic citizenship (EDC) in the school sector in England since 1995. Following the publication of the Crick Report, citizenship education was introduced to secondary schools in 2002 as a statutory subject. Primary schools are also required to show, through inspection, how they are preparing learners for citizenship. The implementation of citizenship as a National Curriculum subject in England is taking place during a period of constitutional reform and was the most significant innovation of curriculum 2000. Recent parallel initiatives in EDC are taking place elsewhere in the UK, in Europe and internationally. In both established democracies and newly established democratic states, such as those of Eastern and Central Europe and Latin America, there is a recognition that democracy is essentially fragile and that it depends on the active engagement of citizens, not just in voting, but in developing and participating in sustainable and cohesive communities. The paper examines the role of EDC in responding to these political challenges, setting national policy developments in both European and international contexts and exploring the growing international consensus on human rights as the underpinning principles of EDC. It identifies some key themes within the research, such as diversity and unity; global and cosmopolitan citizenship; children as citizens; democratic schooling; students' understandings of citizenship and democracy; the complementary roles of schools and communities; European citizenship; and the practicalities of implementing EDC at school level. It identifies some gaps in the research literature and concludes by proposing an on-going agenda for research. 
Keywords: Children's rights; Democratic schooling; Diversity; Europe; Globalization; Human rights 

Tittel: Introduction: Cosmopolitanism In the Making Publisert år: 2009 Dokumenttype: Artikkel Språk: Engelsk Frida: Frida

by torill strand

Le cosmopolitisme sous le coup de l’émotion. Une lecture sociologique des messages de solidarité en réaction aux attentats du 11 mars 2004 à Madrid.

by Gérôme Truc

Paru dans la revue "Hermès", n°46, 2006, p.189-199.

Version revue et actualisée dans P. Rasse (Dir.), "La mondialisation de la communication", CNRS Editions, coll. "Les Essentiels d'Hermès", 2010, p. 113-138 :
http://www.iscc.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article825

À partir d’une première analyse d’un corpus d’environ 60 000 messages de solidarité, provenant du monde entier et... more À partir d’une première analyse d’un corpus d’environ 60 000 messages de solidarité, provenant du monde entier et recueillis à la gare d’Atocha (Madrid) depuis les attentats du 11 mars 2004 jusqu’à mars 2005, cet article présente trois registres d’expression de l’émotion en réaction à des attentats. Ce qui caractérise chacun d’eux, c’est la façon dont le scripteur définit sa relation avec les victimes, dont il répond à la question : en quoi les victimes et moi sommes-nous pareils ? Si c’est en tant qu’ils vivent ensemble à Madrid ou en Espagne, il adoptera un « registre communautariste ». Si c’est parce qu’ils appartiennent à l’humanité, il s’orientera vers un « registre pacifiste ». Si c’est parce qu’ils sont chacun des personnes singulières, sa réaction pourra s’exprimer au travers d’un « registre cosmopolitique ». Mais ce cosmopolitisme du cœur ne se confond pas avec l’universalisme de raison qui sous-tend le registre pacifiste.


Based on a first analysis of a corpus of about 60.000 messages of solidarity, from the whole world, and collected at the Atocha train station (Madrid) since the 11th of March 2004 attacks up to March 2005, this article describes three registers of expression of emotion in reaction to terrorist attacks. What characterizes each of them is the way in which the scripter defines his relation to the victims, how he responds to the question : in what respect the victims and me are alike ? If that is because they live together in Madrid or Spain, he will resort to a “communitarian register”. If that is because they belong to mankind, he will turn towards a “pacifist register”. If that is because they are singulars persons, his reaction can find an expression through a “cosmopolitan register”. But this cosmopolitanism of heart should not be mistaken for the universalism of reason, which is involved in the pacifist register.

Simmel, sociologue du cosmopolitisme

by Gérôme Truc

Paru dans la revue "Tumultes", 1/2005 (n° 24), p. 49-77.

Certains sociologues anglo-saxons, au premier rang desquels Ulrich Beck, considèrent que l’état actuel du monde et de... more Certains sociologues anglo-saxons, au premier rang desquels Ulrich Beck, considèrent que l’état actuel du monde et de nos sociétés commande de rompre avec le "nationalisme méthodologique" de la sociologie classique et de ses fondateurs, en vue de fonder une nouvelle sociologie cosmopolitique. Dans le même temps, le regain d’intérêt porté en France à la pensée de Georg Simmel n’aborde presque jamais directement l’originalité et la pertinence de ses vues pour appréhender les phénomènes sociaux transnationaux. A cet égard, on en reste encore bien souvent à l’emblématique "Excursus sur l’étranger". Tout porte à croire que le cosmopolitisme de la pensée de Simmel, symbolisé par ce texte, occulte la sociologie du cosmopolitisme à laquelle il invite plus profondément par le reste de son oeuvre. Cet article propose alors une relecture de la Sociologie de 1908, axée en particulier sur le dixième et dernier chapitre, afin de montrer comment il est possible, contrairement à ce que pense U. Beck, de prendre le cosmopolitisme pour objet et perspective d’analyse sociologique sans pour autant rompre avec les traditions classiques de la sociologie, mais en restant au contraire fidèle à la pensée d’un de ses plus éminents fondateurs.