Cosmopolitanism: Beyond Multiculturalism

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

What ideas help us to live together in a world often imagined as either divided by chasms of cultural incomprehension or forcibly homogenised by globalisation? This subject is designed to explore the idea of cosmopolitanism, focusing on cosmopolitan ideas and actualities in Australia today, as well as their background and development in other times and places. One aim of this subject is to develop an understanding of cosmopolitanism as a concept and practice that might lead us ‘beyond multiculturalism’. By utilising an interdisciplinary perspective, this subject encourages students to think in a variety of ways about how the local, national and international interact – both to meet the challenges of an increasingly globalised world, but also to think critically about the social and cultural implications for Australia. It aims to outline the bases and potential for forms of cosmopolitan engagement emerging today – to develop an understanding of the histories, discourses, spaces and narratives that make such engagement possible, and to debate a 'cosmo-politics' relevant to Australia, and the world.

Students who complete this subject should be able to:

• comprehend and engage with a range of interdisciplinary approaches to cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism, including historical, sociological, philosophical, social and cultural texts and debates
• demonstrate a critical understanding of cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism and related concepts such as transnationalism, internationalism and globalisation
• be able to think in theoretical terms about the concepts of cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism in an Australian context
• exhibit a capacity for critical thinking about Australian culture and society
• demonstrate interdisciplinary skills in research, analysis, and written and verbal communication that draw upon materials and concepts presented and discussed in seminars  

A subject reader will be available.

Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, Cristina Szanton Blanc, Nations unbound: transnational projects, postcolonial predicaments, and deterritorialized nation-states ([S.l.] : Gordon and Breach, 1994). Jan S. Adams and Marilyn R. Waldman (eds), Transnational approaches of the social sciences : readings in international studies (Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, c1983) Pheng Cheah and Bruce Robbins, Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling beyond the Nation (University of Minnesota Press,1998) John Docker and Gerhard Fischer (Eds), Race, colour and identity in Australia and New Zealand (Sydney : UNSW Press, 2000). John Wiseman, Global nation? : Australia and the politics of globalisation (Cambridge . Melbourne : Cambridge University Press, 1998). Antoinette Burton (ed.), After the imperial turn : thinking with and through the nation (Durham, [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 2003). Gerard Delanty, Citizenship in a global age : society, culture, politics (Buckingham : Open University Press, 2000). Carol A. Breckenridge [et al., guest editors]. Cosmopolitanism, (Durham, N.C.: Society for Transnational Cultural Studies by Duke University Press, c2000. Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen (eds), Conceiving cosmopolitanism : theory, context and practice (New York : Oxford University Press, c2002). Joshua Cohen (ed.), For love of country: debating the limits of patriotism / Martha C. Nussbaum with respondents (Boston : Beacon Press, c1996). Nigel Dower and John Williams, (Eds.) Global citizenship : a critical reader (Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2002). (University of Minnesota Press,1998) Cornelia Navari, Internationalism and the state in the twentieth century (London : Routledge, 2000).

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• be able to demonstrate that they can take responsibility for their own learning and academic endeavour. be able to think in theoretical and / or have strong foundation for empirical research.
• be able to demonstrate the time-management skills required for conducting a sustained and developmental piece of independent study.
• be able to demonstrate skills of information retrieval, management of ideas, and orchestration of diverse sources in the process of essay construction and presentation.
• be able to situate the significance of their research in the context of broader social, ethical and cultural contexts.
• be able to communicate their research findings in a clear and intelligible manner.