Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: a research agenda

Abstract

This article calls for a re-conceptualization of the social sciences by asking for a cosmopolitan turn. The intellectual undertaking of redefining cosmopolitanism is a trans-disciplinary one, which includes geography, anthropology, ethnology, international relations, international law, political philosophy and political theory, and now sociology and social theory. Methodological nationalism, which subsumes society under the nation-state, has until now made this task almost impossible. The alternative, a 'cosmopolitan outlook', is a contested term and project. Cosmopolitanism must not be equalized with the global (or globalization), with 'world system theory' (Wallerstein), with 'world polity' (Meyer and others), or with 'worldsociety' (Luhmann). All of those concepts presuppose basic dualisms, such as domestic/foreign or national/international, which in reality have become ambiguous. Methodological cosmopolitanism opens up new horizons by demonstrating how we can make the empirical investigation of border crossings and other transnational phenomena possible.Keywords: Cosmopolitanism; methodological cosmopolitanism; methodological nationalism; social theory At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are witnessing a global transformation of modernity which calls for a re-thinking of the humanities and the social sciences. The period after the Second World War was the golden age for social scientific research grounded in seemingly natural, never ending historical 'Wertbeziehungen' (value relations) (Max Weber): The humanities and social sciences drew lessons from the end of Nazi barbarianism, took part in the construction of the welfare state or the process of decolonization, liberation and democratization around the world; and participated in social Beck

Transcultural Brokerage: The Role of Cosmopolitans in Bridging Structural and Cultural Holes

“…Furthermore, different cross-cultural and transnational experiences are now recognized as cosmopolitan (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000;Beck & Sznaider, 2006), including those that are mundane, unprivileged, or unintended (Beck & Sznaider, 2006;Cohen, 1992;Werbner, 1999). Thus, a wide variety of cosmopolitans now exist across classes and geographies, as an inherent feature of a global world (Werbner, 2007).…”

“…personified by an individual with a cosmopolitan disposition and limited international background. This is important because limited social mobility (see Lott, 2012) and a traditional focus on geographical and national borders, which have dominated international business (IB) (Beck & Sznaider, 2006;Caprar, Devinney, Kirkman, & Caligiuri, 2015;Jonsen, 2016;Stahl & Tung, 2015), have constrained our thinking and research. In other words, with connections less dependent on geographical proximity, structural advantages may, over time, be less correlated with physical mobility and more with each person's cosmopolitan disposition.…”

Steps Toward Cosmopolitanism in the Study of Media Technologies

“…Beck refers to such strategies as 'methodological cosmopolitanism' (Beck, 2006;Beck & Sznaider, 2006). Methodological cosmopolitanism may be defined as an empirical sensibility toward the use of multiple methods on the links between production and consumption, and materiality and content in the lifecycle of media technologies.…”

Towards a Political Sociology of Human Rights

“…Much discussion amongst sociologists has, however, turned on why the discipline itself has historically neglected questions of rights. One of the main reasons is undoubtedly the now familiar charge of "methodological nationalism", the way in which sociologists have tended to equate "society" as the object of their study with the borders of nation-states in a way that precludes understanding of social relations and interdependencies across state borders (see Beck and Sznaider 2006;Sznaider and Levy 2006). Interestingly, it is not only the growing interest in globalization that now leads to new consideration of human rights; it is also that (as we shall discuss below) human rights are themselves globalizing.…”