Cosmopolitanism And The Legacies Of Dissent (routledge Studies In Social And Political Thought)

The core idea shared by all cosmopolitan views is that all human beings belong to a single community and the ultimate units of moral concern are individual human beings, not states or particular forms of human associations. Nevertheless, the attempts to ground a political theory on overarching universal principles is in contradiction with the plurality of social, cultural, political, religious interpretative standpoints in the contemporary world. Is dissent cosmopolitan? Is there a legacy of dissent for a theory of cosmopolitanism? This book is a comparative, historical analysis of dissident thought and practice for contemporary debates on cosmopolitanism. Divided into two parts, the editors and contributors explore the contribution of ‘paradigmatic’ dissidents like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Havel, Sakharov, Mandela, Liu Xiaobo, Aung San Suu Kyi towards a post-universalist cosmopolitan theory. Part Two examines the inherent cosmopolitanism of the seemingly ‘peripheral’ dissent of contemporary forms of protests, resistance, direct action like NO TAV movement and Occupy Wall Street. A timely book which allows for a much needed new engagement in contemporary debates of cosmopolitanism, we learn how practical resistance to totalizing/hegemonic claims is generated, and how dissident thinking might contribute to new, enriched ways of conceiving the non-totalizing foundations of cosmopolitanism. An innovative look at what lessons can scholars of cosmopolitanism learn from dissent/dissident movements, and what the role of dissent in cosmopolitan democracy could be. "The core idea shared by all cosmopolitan views is that all human beings belong to a single community and the ultimate units of moral concern are individual human beings, not states or particular forms of human associations. Nevertheless, the attempts to ground a political theory on overarching universal principles contradicts the plurality of social, cultural, political, and religious interpretative standpoints in the contemporary world. Is dissent cosmopolitan? Is there a legacy of dissent for a theory of cosmopolitanism? This book is a comparative, historical analysis of dissident thought and practice for contemporary debates on cosmopolitanism. In three parts, the editors and contributors explore the contribution of 'paradigmatic' dissident by the likes of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Havel, Sakharov, Mandela, Liu Xiaobo, and Aung San Suu Kyi toward a post-universalist cosmopolitan theory and examine the inherent cosmopolitanism of the seemingly 'peripheral' dissent of contemporary forms of protests, resistance, and direct action like the NO TAV movement and Occupy Wall Street. Through this timely book which allows for a much-needed new engagement in contemporary debates of cosmopolitanism, we learn how practical resistance to totalizing/hegemonic claims is generated and how dissident thinking might contribute to new, enriched ways of conceiving the non-totalizing foundations of cosmopolitanism. It presents an innovative look at the lessons scholars of cosmopolitanism can learn from dissent/dissident movements and what the role of dissent in cosmopolitan democracy can be"-- Provided by publisher Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Cosmopolitanism of Dissent PART I Cosmopolitanism and the Legacy of Dissidence 1 Havel’s Agonistic Realism: What Can Cosmopolitan Thinkers Learn from the Eastern European Dissent? 2 Remembering Dissidents: Cosmopolitan Challenges in Post-Socialist Slovenia 3 Is Liu Xiaobo a Rooted Cosmopolitan? A Critical Examination of His Dissent from a Historical Perspective 4 Aung San Suu Kyi and Cosmopolitanism as the ‘Revolution of the Spirit’ PART II Cosmopolitanism and the Legacy of Civil Disobedience 5 The Universalist Aspirations of Nationalist Dissent: Lessons from the Debates between Gandhi and Tagore 6 Contestatory Cosmopolitan Citizenship: The Legacy of Martin Luther King 7 Nelson Mandela and His Cosmopolitan Legacies 8 Civil Disobedience in Cosmopolitan Perspective: National Responsibility, Citizenship, Representation PART III Cosmopolitanism and the Promise of Global Resistance 9 Dissent, ‘Counter-Knowledge’ and Cosmopolitanism in the NO TAV Movement 10 Global Citizenship versus Cosmopolitanism: Lessons Learned from Chinese Dissidents, Global Indigenous Peoples Movement and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities 11 Channeling Dissent: Multicultural Encounters with Cosmopolitan Normativity 12 The Logistics of Dissent: Prefigurative Politicsin Occupy Wall Street Conclusions Selected Bibliography Contributors Index