Cosmopolitan Borders

Abstract

Abstract Borders play an essential role in cosmopolitan thought, but are dismissed as antithetical to the cosmopolitan project. This chapter asks instead whether borders can be re-imagined in such a way as to fulfil cosmopolitan aims. It does so by first highlighting cosmopolitan theories that emphasize localism and community, specifically those of Bonnie Honig and Julia Kristeva. Thereafter it turns to the US-Mexico borderlands and discusses two examples of potential re-imagination: an institutional model for cross-border democracy and citizenship; and civic attempts at cross-border community building, especially in the artistic interventions of Ronald Rael. Rather than view borders as impediments to a robust cosmopolitan theory, the chapter reveals how borders might also meaningfully be transformed into sites of cosmopolitanism. In sum: it makes a case for cosmopolitan borders.

Authors 1

1. Matthew R. Longo corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University