Cosmopolitan Spaces: Europe, Globalization, Theory

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. 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 to concepts which challenge accepted thinking on the spaces and borders of Europe. 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’. 

http://www.routledge.com/books/Cosmopolitan-Spaces-isbn9780415390675

Table of 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.

Read an excerpt from ‘The Introduction’ on Amazon   http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0415390672/ref=sib_rdr_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S00E&j=0#reader-page

Related publication:  ”Postwestern Turkey meets postwestern Europe” www.rhul.ac.uk/Politics-and-IR/Working-Papers/RHUL-PIR_Working_Paper-03_Chris_Rumford_Postwestern_EU.pdf

Chris Rumford is Reader in Political Sociology and Global Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London where he is co-director of the Centre for Global and Transnational Politics http://cgtp.rhul.ac.uk/  He is the author of The European Union: A Political Sociology (Blackwell, 2002), co-author (with Gerard Delanty) of Rethinking Europe: Social Theory and the Implications of Europeanization (Routledge, 2005), and editor of Cosmopolitanism and Europe (Liverpool University Press, 2007), Citizens and Borderwork in Contemporary Europe (Routledge, 2008), and the Handbook of European Studies (Sage, 2009).

What the reviewers said about his previous book Rethinking Europe (co-authored with Gerard Delanty)

‘This superb book represents a quantum leap in thinking about Europe and the emergent field of “Eurosociology”’ British Journal of Sociology 58(2) 2007

‘Rethinking Europe provides a thought-provoking and important contribution to European studies’  Sociology 40(6) 2006

 

‘Delanty and Rumford’s contribution to social scientific research on Europe and European integration is both original and highly welcome’ International Sociology 22(2) 2007

 New book  The Sage Handbook of European Studies( April 2009)

 

‘Chris Rumford has established himself as one of the most informed and incisive commentators on contemporary Europe. In this Handbook he has drawn upon this expertise to bring together some of the best scholars currently writing about Europe. Here are to be found both the best-known names and some of the younger and rising stars. In its range and comprehensiveness it will be hard to beat; and it will certainly become an invaluable resource for sociologists, political scientists, historians and all others seeking the best information and most up-to-the-date approaches to the study of Europe today’ - Krishan Kumar, University of Virginia

‘This volume brings together some of the biggest names in European Studies to analyse the most important trajectories of Europe’s development and the challenges faced by the continent today. No one interested in Europe will be able to ignore this extraordinary collection of scholarship’ - Thomas Diez, University of Birmingham

Other titles by Chris Rumford