Towards cosmopolitan learning

Abstract

In recent years, the idea of cosmopolitanism has variously been explored as a political philosophy, a moral theory and a cultural disposition. In each of these cases, this new interest in cosmopolitanism is based upon a recognition that our world is increasingly interconnected and interdependent globally, and that most of our problems are global in nature requiring global solutions. In this paper, I argue that this recognition demands new resources of learning about how our lives are becoming re-shaped by global processes and connections, and how we might live with and steer the economic, political and cultural shifts that contemporary forms of global connectivity represent. In the context of these global shifts, learning itself needs to become cosmopolitan. This requires the development of a new approach around the old idea of cosmopolitanism, interpreting it not so much as a universal moral principle, nor as a prescription recommending a particular form of political configuration – nor indeed as a transnational life-style – but a mode of learning about, and ethically engaging with, new social formations.

Keywords:

• cosmopolitanism
• globalization
• neoliberalism
• cultural encounters
• learning