The Blackwell Companion to Globalization

Chapter 8

Cosmopolitanism: A Critical Theory for the Twenty-first Century

ULRICH BECK

In this chapter I want to outline an argument for cosmopolitanism as a new critical theory for the twenty-first century. Its main purpose is to undermine one of the most powerful beliefs of our time concerning society and politics. This belief is the notion that ‘modern society’ and ‘modern politics’ are to be understood as society and politics organized around the nation-state, equating society with the national imagination of society. There are two aspects to this body of beliefs: what I call the ‘national perspective’ (or ‘national gaze’) of social actors, and ‘methodological nationalism’ of scientific observers. This distinction between these two perspectives is important because there is no logical co-implication between them, only an interconnected genesis and history.

METHODOLOGICAL NATIONALISM AND ITS CRITIQUE

Methodological nationalism takes the following premises for granted: it equates societies with nation-state societies, and sees states and their governments as the cornerstones of social-scientific analysis. It assumes that humanity is naturally divided into a limited number of nations, which internally organize themselves as nation-states and externally set boundaries to distinguish themselves from other nation-states. And it goes further: this outer delimitation as well as the competition between nation-states represent the most fundamental category of political organization.