This book aims to present a holistic picture of the Chinese immigrants from Fuzhou in New York. It shows how a small village in Southeast China has expanded to New York and has undergone a transformation over the past few decades, from rural Third World peasants to ethnic entrepreneurs in a global city. Validating Marshall Sahlins’s statement that migrants can “organise the irresistible forces of the world system according to their own system of the world,” the book seeks to explain the following aspects: first, how Chinese migrants from Fuzhou built a self-governing community and provided public goods for its members. Second, how they adapted their pre-modern social relations to a market environment, creating interwoven economic networks in an ethnic economy and reshaping local culture-based economies into a distinctive form of capitalism. Third, how they transformed their religious world, adapting Chinese Buddhism and folk religion as a focus for their society and economy. Fourth, the characteristics of the migrants’ cultural identity, examining the continuities in their identity and how it has changed over time. Students and scholars in anthropology, Chinese studies and cultural studies will find this book essential reading.

The study of Cosmopolitanism has been transformed in the last 20 years and the subject itself has become highly discussed across the social sciences and the humanities. The Ashgate Research Companion to Cosmopolitanism pursues distinct theoretical orientations and empirical analyses, bringing together mainstream discussions with the newest thinking and developments on the main themes, debates and controversies surrounding the subject. The contributions are grouped into three parts, each reflecting a different analytical focus within a variety of intellectual disciplines and methodological approaches. Part I (Cultural Cosmopolitanism) is primarily concerned with the empirically-grounded aspects of cosmopolitanism which are apparent in mundane practices and lifestyle options on the micro-scale of daily interactions. It focuses on the outlooks and lived experience of ordinary individuals and groups in concrete situational contexts and social structures. Part II (Political Cosmopolitanism) sets out the main topics and issues dealt with by scholars writing within the tradition of political cosmopolitanism. Addressing timely issues such as human rights, global justice, and global democracy, it focuses on Cosmopolitanism as an ethico-political ideal and a political project to devise new forms of supranational and transnational governance. Part III (Debates) reflects the major debates and controversies on the subject and deliberately eschews any bland consensus to instead foreground the key arguments and lively intellectual discussions in play across disciplinary divisions. Featuring contributions from key thinkers in the field, including Ulrich Beck, David Held and Martha Nussbaum, this comprehensive volume will be a valuable resource for all academics and students working within this area of study.

The study of Cosmopolitanism has been transformed in the last 20 years and the subject itself has become highly discussed across the social sciences and the humanities. The Ashgate Research Companion to Cosmopolitanism pursues distinct theoretical orientations and empirical analyses, bringing together mainstream discussions with the newest thinking and developments on the main themes, debates and controversies surrounding the subject.

This book discusses the ways civil society initiatives open communities to newcomers and why, how, and under what circumstances some are more welcoming than others, exploring the importance of transgressive cosmopolitanism as a basis for creating more inclusive and pluralistic societies. The question of how to live together in increasingly multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multireligious societies is a pressing political and policy issue, particularly as we witness a rise in right-wing populism and anti-immigrant sentiments. This book addresses the limitations of approaches that seek to secure borders, preventing the arrival of newcomers altogether, or that vacillate between assimilation and multiculturalism. The authors explore the concept of cosmopolitanism and its utility, by theorizing from real-world examples, including Germany’s Welcome Culture and Denmark’s Kind Citizens movements and other smaller-scale initiatives, such as arts and museum projects, kitchen hubs, and shared living accommodation. Interdisciplinary in nature and bringing conceptual discussions together with everyday examples, this book focuses on forms of activity generally left out of wider debates around protest and social movement literature. It emphasizes different types of activities undertaken by civil society groups, who do not necessarily self-identify as political, but whose activities can counter right-wing populism. This dialogue between concepts and everyday politics makes the volume a very useful companion to classroom discussion and will facilitate its own exchange between scholars, activists, and practitioners.

What makes people cosmopolitan? How is cosmopolitanism shaping everyday life experiences and the practices of ordinary people? Making use of empirical research, Cosmopolitanism in Practice examines the concrete settings in which individuals display cosmopolitan sensibilities and dispositions, illustrating the ways in which cosmopolitan self-transformations can be used as an analytical tool to explain a variety of identity outlooks and practices. The manner in which both past and present cosmopolitanisms compete with meta-narratives such as nationalism, multiculturalism and religion is also investigated, alongside the employment of cosmopolitan ideas in situations of tension and conflict. With an international team of contributors, including Ulrich Beck, Steven Vertovec, Rob Kroes and Natan Sznaider, this book draws on a variety of intellectual disciplines and international contexts to show how people embrace and make use of cosmopolitan ideas and attitudes.

Invigorating and timely, this book provides a thorough overview of the geographies of cosmopolitanism, an ethical and political philosophy that views humanity as one community. Barney Warf charts the origins and developments of this line of thought, exploring how it has changed over time, acquiring many variations along the way.

The term cosmopolitan is increasingly used within different social, cultural and political settings, including academia, popular media and national politics. However those who invoke the cosmopolitan project rarely ask whose experience, understanding, or vision of cosmopolitanism is being described and for whose purposes? In response, this volume assembles contributors from different disciplines and theoretical backgrounds to examine cosmopolitanism’s possibilities, aspirations and applications—as well as its tensions, contradictions, and discontents—so as to offer a critical commentary on the vital but often neglected question: whose cosmopolitanism? The book investigates when, where, and how cosmopolitanism emerges as a contemporary social process, global aspiration or emancipatory political project and asks whether it can serve as a political or methodological framework for action in a world of conflict and difference.