Urban Cosmopolitan Chauvinism and the Politics of Rural Identity

Rejoinder: The Authors Respond to “Interpreting Ethnicity and Urbanization in Malaysia's 2013 General Election”

“…These Bumiputera voters work in cities located in urban areas and their mindsets are attuned to issues that affect urbanites. They may elicit the mentality of"urban chauvinism" as espoused by Thompson (2013). In conclusion, we agree with Pepinsky's view that BN has firm support of the Bumiputera electorate in the rural belt.…”

The 2013 Malaysian Elections: Ethnic Politics or Urban Wave?

“…He points out that although PAS used the pervasive urban cosmopolitan chauvinism tactic in mobilizing the rural dwellers against its arch-enemy BN, it has not been an outright success. In contrast to the Mahathir administration, which has been accused of neglecting rural development (Thompson 2013), the former prime minister Abdullah Badawi and the current prime minister Najib Razak have made the interests of rural Malaysia a key cornerstone in their policymaking decisions. They realize that there is much to lose if rural Malaysia continues to be ignored in the name of economic progress.…”

“…Specifically, it leads to the mobilization of both the rural and urban electorate by politicians. Thompson (2013) argues that when there is a lack of an electoral process, rural identities and the cultural discrimination felt by people of rural origin may be a source of social unrest. A clear example of this is the prolonged political impasse ongoing in Thailand.…”

“…Urbanization, however, could contribute to more cosmopolitan worldviews that may nullify the ethnicity effect (Lipset 1959;Parsons 1975). This could lead to what Thompson (2013) refers to as an "urban cosmopolitan chauvinism" bias whereby urbanites perceive themselves as far superior to their rural peers. Also, prolonged interaction with other ethnic groups increases awareness of commonly shared characteristics, whereas infrequent contact can reinforce hostile ethnic stereotyping (Allport 1979).…”

Queer Indigenous Entropy: Sexual Circulation and the Conquest Narrative

“…Subaltern Native queer agrarianism as an analytical orientation refuses the formation of backwardness or representational solidification of cultural difference between the urban and the rural. Rather, it seeks to understand rurality and its cultural conservatism as engaged in the production of a subaltern identity drawn from a shared cultural knowledge of urbanism and “cosmopolitan chauvinism.” As Eric C. Thompson tells us, urban and rural subjects are not “operating from within different cultural systems, but rather they are operating in the same structures of feeling, but positioned very differently in relationship with the ideas circulating within that structure” (:168–9). Thus, ideas circulating in America about class, race, gender, religion, rights, responsibility, and freedom are differentially accessed by individuals positioned by their own local histories as well as the ways they are perceived by subjects of other positions.…”