ARI Working Paper Series

In a period of rapid globalisation, sociologists need urgently to reconsider the national assumptions of sociology. Cosmopolitanism is a promising set of values and presuppositions that are useful for rethinking and designing sociology to meet the challenge of a global social system. To comprehend global processes, the existing assumptions about national societies in mainstream sociology will require a thoroughgoing critique, not just of theory and methods, but of meta-theoretical assumptions. Cosmopolitanism is not therefore just an intellectual orientation to a diverse global world; it also involves a normative discourse about ontology and culture, leading to norms about recognition, respect and care for other cultures. I shall define this normative cosmopolitanism as an aspect of virtue ethics.

In analytical terms, critical recognition theory is the core of cosmopolitanism, and by a critical recognition theory I mean the recognition of otherness that accepts, indeed encourages, mutual critical evaluation. It does not mean carte blanche acceptance of the values and practices of other cultures, but calls for mutual, dialogical, critical understanding. Recognition of the other is only the first step towards a cosmopolitan sociology; there must be, in terms of Jurgen Habermas’s communication theory, the possibility for dialogue, involving of critical, mutual inspection.

Therefore, the development of an intellectually adequate sociology requires an engagement with critical recognition theory to develop methodologies that are more suitable to the task of a cosmopolitan and global sociology. The problem of mutual recognition is located in the Enlightenment, and today’s debates can be seen as a continuation of Leibniz and Kant on cosmopolitanism, but contemporary globalisation presents significantly different and challenging problems. What we need therefore is a new Enlightenment.