Cosmopolitans, Spatial Mobility and the Alternative Geographies

Abstract

This paper seeks to reframe the debates on cosmopolitanism and mobile cosmopolitan subjects by focusing its analysis on a multidimensional character of sociospatial relations. In particular, it critically engages with these works which too often see subjects as social categories and distinguish cosmopolitans from others, and which are silent about how people relate to space. The paper makes use of the study of mobile professionals working an international organization belonging to the United Nation family of organizations and argues that mobility in space creates a condition for emerging of sites of diversity and of new spatial imaginaries. It asks how these two aspects are related to each other. While the first aspect is addressed in the empirical studies, the paper makes a claim that cosmopolitanism is about challenging the latent spatial imaginaries and creating alternative geographies. Grounding this claim in empirical research, the paper complements the theoretical works on normative cosmopolitanism.