Cosmopolitan China?

Abstract

Cosmopolitanism is the focus of much current debate. This literature is marked by a relative paucity of detailed research examining cosmopolitanism as a social force within particular societies. Two topics that have received little attention despite their utter importance for current global challenges are the scale and impact of cosmopolitanism in China and the significance of 'low carbon innovation'. This paper explores both on the basis of over 70 interviews with parties involved in low-carbon innovation, a field particularly propitious for cosmopolitan motivation. We argue that there is distinct evidence of cosmopolitanism in China but this is relatively fragile and an elite development, despite China's increasingly deep integration into global networks and flows. Furthermore, the cosmopolitanism in evidence is a distinctly Chinese version, thereby offering important lessons regarding the nature of cosmopolitanism per se and the reciprocal challenge of China to the existing cosmopolitanism of the global North.