We the Cosmopolitans Moral and Existential Conditions of Being Human [Hardcover]

The provocative title of this book is deliberately and challengingly universalist, matching the theoretically experimental essays, where contributors try different ideas to answer distinct concerns regarding cosmopolitanism. Leading anthropologists explore what cosmopolitanism means in the context of everyday life, variously viewing it as an aspect of kindness and empathy, as tolerance, hospitality and openness, and as a defining feature of pan-human individuality. The chapters thus advance an existential critique of abstract globalization discourse. The book enriches interdisciplinary debates about hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary cosmopolitanism as a political and moral project, examining the form of its lived effects and offering new ideas and case studies to work with.

Alexandra Hallis Lecturer in Politics at the University of York. She has a background in anthropology and her research interests include the international securitization of mobility and contemporary border politics in the West. She has conducted research into the everyday production and experience of security within immigration detention, and the rise of smart e-border targeting systems in the UK and Europe. Her ethnography of an immigration removal centre,Borderwatch: Cultures of Immigration, Detention and Control,was published by Pluto Press in 2012.

Preface

Introduction:We the Cosmopolitans: Framing the Debate
Lisette Josephides

Chapter 1.Citizens of Everything: The Aporetics of Cosmopolitanism
Ronald Stade

Chapter 2.The Capacities of Anyone: Accommodating the Universal Human Subject as Value and in Space
Nigel Rapport

Chapter 3.Cosmopolitan Morality in the British Immigration and Asylum System
Alexandra Hall

Chapter 4.Experiences of Pain: A Gateway to Cosmopolitan Subjectivlƒ/