NATIONALISM,COSMOPOLITANISM, AND GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATIONS |
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Authors: | BARNEY WARF |
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Institution: | 1. Professor of geography at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045‐7613;2. [bwarf@ku.edu]. |
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Abstract: | In this article I set nationalism and cosmopolitanism into sharp contrast with one another as inherently incompatible geographical imaginations. I begin by briefly denaturalizing nationalism and the nation‐state. I then turn to the philosophy and political agenda of cosmopolitanism, an ideology simultaneously very old and new, which offers a more inclusive and empathetic alternative to nationalist xenophobia. In the third section I argue that contemporary globalization has laid the ontological foundations of a cosmopolitan world order. Next, I explicate nationalism's and cosmopolitanism's competing visions of the definition and meaning of “community.” I summarize major objections to cosmopolitanism and offer a defense of it. In the following section I focus on the implications of cosmopolitanism for contemporary geography, including relational spatialities of empathy and caring. Finally, I suggest that contemporary globalization is gradually putting into place the legal and institutional apparatus for cosmopolitan global governance and democracy. |
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Keywords: | cosmopolitanism empathy global governance globalization nationalism |
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