Call for papers

Challenging globalization: new perspectives, alternative visions, emerging agendas

The annual conference of the Global Studies Association, September 2nd -4th 2009

Hosted by: The Centre for Global and Transnational Politics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX

Cosmopolitan Spaces: Europe, Globalization, Theory
By Chris Rumford (Routledge)
order from amazon.co.uk here | routledge here

Further details - Routledge Advances in Sociology www.routledge.com/books/Cosmopolitan-Spaces-isbn9780415390675

Do we live in ‘one world’ as globalization theorists tell us?
The book takes issue with various strands of globalization thinking from the perspective of ‘critical cosmopolitanism’. At the core of this critique is the idea that globalization theories have, over a period of two decades or so, uncritically offered us a strong vision of the singularity of the world, its oneness and ‘unicity’, to use Robertson’s term, a vision which follows from the insistence that globalization makes the world into a single place (and allows us to perceive it as a single place). The book advances the idea that cosmopolitanism, if it is to retain a critical edge in the social sciences, has to be centrally concerned with generating a multiplicity of perspectives, and consequently allowing for the possibility of many worlds.

In addition, this book rethinks some central tenets of globalization thinking from the perspective of ‘critical cosmopolitanism’ and the result is a highly innovative account of European transformations under conditions of globalization. The book argues for a social theory of European transformations rather than a sociology of European integration, and introduces us many important concepts which challenge accepted thinking on the spaces and borders of Europe:
• Postwesternization
• Cosmopolitan borders
• ‘spaces of wonder’

Contents:
1 Introduction: Cosmopolitanism as a Politics of Space
2 From a Sociology of the EU to a Social Theory of Europe
3 The Borders and Borderlands of Europe: A Critique of Balibar
4 Europe’s Cosmopolitan Borders
5 ‘Spaces of Wonder’: The Global Politics of Strangeness
6 Empire and the Hubris of the ‘High Point’
7 Postwesternization
8 The World is Not Enough: Globalization Reconsidered
9 Concluding Thoughts: The Spaces of Critical Cosmopolitanism

Publishers blurb: Cosmopolitan Spaces: Europe, Globalization, Theory offers a highly innovative reading of both globalization theory and contemporary European transformations. Interpreting cosmopolitanism as a politics of space, Rumford positions his analysis at the intersection of two exciting currents in contemporary social science research: the ‘spatial turn’ in the social sciences and the renewed interest in cosmopolitanism. Rumford elaborates a completely new theoretical framework for understanding the contemporary social and political transformation of Europe, and takes issue with many aspects of the globalization-inspired accounts of Europeanization which remain blind to the spatial dimensions of change. In addition to its compelling reading of cosmopolitanism, Cosmopolitan Spaces: Europe, Globalization, Theory, offers a provocative critique of Europe-as-Empire, and advances the claim that Europe should be considered ‘postwestern’.

Globalization and the transformation of Europe’s borders
A seminar series/research network funded by Norface

Principal Organizer: Chris Rumford, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

New edited collection ‘ Cosmopolitanism and Europe’ (Liverpool University Press) is now available from amazon.co.uk here
Synopsis
Of late, cosmopolitanism has emerged as an important concept in relation to the transformation of Europe and rethinking Europe's place in the world. Moreover, cosmopolitanism is seen to be particularly relevant to a European Union in which member states are increasingly occupied with developing responsibilities that extend beyond their narrow national interests. The book advances the case that cosmopolitan perspectives can add an important new dimension to the study of contemporary Europe. At the same time, the transformation of Europe provides the context for the development of a range of new cosmopolitan ideas. The book has an excellent range of contributors from the UK and elsewhere in Europe including Daniele Archibugi, Ulrich Beck, Gerard Delanty, Robert Fine and Kate Nash.

• Editor: Sage Handbook of European Studies: a major new collection of essays by leading commentators on contemporary Europe (forthcoming, 2008).
  
  
• Paper presentation: ‘Europe’s cosmopolitan borders’, at the School of Global Studies, Arizona State University, on 2 December 2005.
  
  
• Invited participant: ‘Cosmopolitanism: past and future’ workshop at the University of Liverpool on 18-19 November 2005 (Keynote speaker: Ulrich Beck).
  
  
• Conference paper: ‘The cosmopolitan sublime: Romanticism, subjectivity, and the infinities of the globe’ (co-authored with Davis Inglis), presented at the annual conference organized by ‘Millennium: Journal of International Studies’. The conference theme was ‘Between Fear and Wonder: International Politics, Representation and the Sublime', held at the LSE on 29-30 October 2005
  
  
• Conference paper: ‘Organizing non-European space: new borderland of ‘undivided Europe’, presented at the World International Studies Committee conference ‘Bringing International Studies Together’, Istanbul, Turkey 27-27 August 2005.
  
  
• New book: ‘Rethinking Europe: Social Theory and the Implications of Europeanization’ (co-authored with Gerard Delanty) was published by Routledge in July 2005.
  
  
• Panel presentation: ‘Post-western Turkey in post-western Europe’, presented at “Turkey and the EU after 2004: a new beginning in the relationship?” panel held at the European Studies Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford University, 7 March 2005
  
  
• Conference paper: ‘Organizing European space: borderlands, “undivided Europe” and spatiality beyond territory’, presented at the ESRC conference ‘Networks, mobilities and borders in the global system’, Oxford Brookes University, January 2005