Toward a Conceptual Framework for Understanding Cosmopolitanism on the Ground

Abstract

In this article, a continuum of resistance and receptivity constitute s a framework for understanding a cosmopolitan orientation “on the ground.” Such a continuum is based on an understanding of the effects of globalization, when it comes to individual people, as both containing a potential for an active interest in other ways of life, and a resistance toward others’ values and ways of living triggered by a feeling of being forced into situations without one’s own voluntarily choice. The notion of continuum implies that each individual occupies a different position depending on the situation and context, and that these positions can shift. In the conceptual use of cosmopolitanism in empirical studies, there is need for more developed and specified terms to be used as analytical tools for discerning if and when something may be considered as a possible cosmopolitan orientation. For this purpose, the four capacities for self‐reflexivity, hospitality, intercultural dialogue and transactions of perspectives, are developed out of Delanty’s understanding of critical cosmopolitanism. To be able to distinguish between institutionalized routine conversations and conversations that seem to engage the students in a more active cosmopolitan meaning making, the continuum of efferent and aesthetic‐reflective experiences, taken from Rosenblatt’s studies of reading, has been suggested. A preliminary analysis of data from an empirical research study focused on classroom conversations, and contextualized by an analysis of a curriculum concerning fundamental values, indicates that it is possible to discern different discursive actions of self‐reflexivity and hospitality in classroom conversations, as well as a potential for intercultural dialogue.