Cosmopolitanism as Discourse and Performance: A View from the Semiperiphery

Abstract

The paper offers a critical reading of recent literature on cosmopolitanism, from a perspective theoretically informed by Bourdieu and shaped by the experiential and intellectual context of southeast Europe as the semiperiphery. Several blind spots are identified, the most important one being insufficient self-reflection on the part of major contributors, resulting in unintended celebration of what is routinely available to only some parts of the globe and some social strata, and a concomitant devaluation of other humans and their less fortunate lifeworlds. Instead, it is argued, cosmopolitanism should be conceptualized as an embedded category, as a specific discourse and performance deployed by definite actors, addressing a particular audience, and within historically, culturally and politi-cally determined social settings. Seen in this light, it is not necessarily morally laudable and entails its own exclusions and injustices.