Conference paper

REDISCOVERING EUROPE – A COSMOPOLITAN VISION

Ulrich Beck ; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Institut für Soziologie, München, Deutschland

Abstract

The author argues that cosmopolitism has become a sign that we need a new – cosmopolitan view to understand the cosmopolitan world. He, thus, welcomes cosmopolitanism in the social sciences and demands that they dispense with the old categories build around the nation state. According to the author, it is especially important to think Europe in a cosmopolitan way so that the member states could be freed from the fear that with the enlargement of Europe they are committing a cultural suicide. The further integration should not be oriented towards the inherited vision of a unity of one European ‘federal state’, but the starting point should be the irreducible many sidedness of Europe. Only in this way, claims the author, is it possible to connect two, at a first glance, contradictory demands – the recognition of difference and the integration of the different.

Keywords

cosmopolitism; Europe; globalization; the nation state; social sciences

Hrčak ID:

24903

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/24903

Publication date:

9.6.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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