Why "European cosmopolitanism"?

Anne S. Krossa

pp. 6-24

in: Roland Robertson, Anne S. Krossa (eds), European cosmopolitanism in question, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

The discussion on "European cosmopolitanism", which has been intensifying for some time now, seems to reproduce a fundamental conceptual problem. Whenever authors start out from a specific answer, in the sense of a solution — in this case, European cosmopolitanism — it leaves them with only one main task. As this task is simply to justify their basic assumption, it is not too surprising when this justification becomes purely normative; or, more problematically, when normative and analytical elements are mixed. All too often this approach considerably limits discussion.