Cosmopolitics and the dialogical self
Introduction: Cosmopolitics is increasingly becoming an alternative to the interminable battles over identity. I conceive it as a contemporary and critical form of cosmopolitanism. This article claims that this alternative will only be viable to the extent that we conceive individuals as partial per...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Spanish |
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Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB)
2009-12-01
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| Series: | Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals |
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| Online Access: | http://www.cidob.org/es/content/download/23077/267688/file/05_pinxten.pdf |
| Summary: | Introduction: Cosmopolitics is increasingly becoming an alternative to the interminable battles over identity. I conceive it as a contemporary and critical form of cosmopolitanism. This article claims that this alternative will only be viable to the extent that we conceive individuals as partial persons. The model of the dialogical self opens up a new path in this field.Method: The ethnographic interviews with Muslims and Christians of different generations enable us to better understand the notions of “personhood” that they adopt. In the other parts of the article, different notions of “person” are contrasted in the context of the new problem of cosmopolitics, in urban environments.Results: After a brief summary of the intuitions derived from the field interviews, the author carries out an analytical examination of the viable notions of “person” in the current problematic situation of urbanites. The traditional (religious-based) notion of “upright person” can be distinguished from the notion of “partial persons” that is underlying in the perspective of the dialogical self. In the final part of the work, the author sketches out the educational and social benefits of the concept of the “partial person”, linked to the procedures of dialogical self theory, in the context of possible cosmopolitical perspectives.Conclusion: The qualitative study of the perception of the person as an “upright” or “partial” person paves the way toward an appreciation of the dialogical self approach, particularly in the context of an increasingly urbanised human condition. Against this background, the author re-discusses (with some modified formats) cosmopolitics as a possible way of entry into global society. |
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| ISSN: | 1133-6595 2013-035X |