Classical sociology and cosmopolitanism: a critical defence of the social

Abstract

It is frequently argued that classical sociology, if not sociology as a whole, cannot provide any significant insight into globalization, primarily because its assumptions about the nation-state, national cultures and national societies are no longer relevant to a global world. Sociology cannot consequently contribute to a normative debate about cosmopolitanism, which invites us to consider loyalties and identities that reach beyond the nation-state. My argument considers four principal topics. First, I defend the classical legacy by arguing that classical sociology involved the study of 'the social' not national societies. This argument is illustration by reference to Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons. Secondly, Durkheim specifically developed the notion of a cosmopolitan sociology to challenge the nationalist assumptions of his day. Thirdly, I attempt to develop a critical version of Max Weber's verstehende soziologie to consider the conditions for critical recognition theory in sociology as a necessary precondition of cosmopolitanism. Finally, I consider the limitations of some contemporary versions of global sociology in the example of 'flexible citizenship' to provide an empirical case study of the limitations of globalization processes and 'sociology beyond society'. While many institutions have become global, some cannot make this transition. Hence, we should consider the limitations on as well as the opportunities for cosmopolitan sociology.

Las relaciones entre nacionalismo y cosmopolitismo

“…La situación en la literatura sobre cosmopolitismo es, en alguna medida, distinta (Delanty, 2009(Delanty, , 2012Fine, 2007;Harvey, 2009;Kendall et al, 2009;Pendenza, 2014;Turner, 2006;Vertovec y Cohen, 2002). En el caso de la sociología, por ejemplo, los argumentos de Ulrich Beck (2000Beck ( , 2006 llaman la atención por su lenguaje hiperbólico, pero reflejan también la visión preponderante sobre el nacionalismo entre quienes se ocupan del cosmopolitismo.…”

Número complet

“…La situación en la literatura sobre cosmopolitismo es, en alguna medida, distinta (Delanty, , 2012Fine, 2007;Harvey, 2009;Kendall et al, 2009;Pendenza, 2014;Turner, 2006;Vertovec y Cohen, 2002). En el caso de la sociología, por ejemplo, los argumentos de Ulrich Beck (2000 llaman la atención por su lenguaje hiperbólico, pero reflejan también la visión preponderante sobre el nacionalismo entre quienes se ocupan del cosmopolitismo.…”

Cosmopolitanism and the relevance of ‘zombie concepts’: the case of anomic suicide amongst Alevi Kurd youth

“…Thus cosmopolitan social theory uses a methodological cosmopolitanism that redefines the conception of society not within a nationalistic framework but within a universalistic one (Morris 2013;Fine 2007;Beck 2002). However, Beck's claim that conventional sociology is irrelevant has been challenged by Inglis (2014) and Turner (2006) who argue that sociological concepts and categories, as developed by classical sociologists such as Durkheim, can still help us understand 'the social' within a cosmopolitan society. In examining the case of suicide amongst young second-generation Alevi Kurd (AK) males, this article accepts that while their transnational migration status, the nature of British society (London in particular), and the nature of the 'new rainbow underclass' (Portes and Rumbaut 2001) as the social segment in which they are located, can be seen as 'cosmopolitan manifestations' (Morris 2013), it also argues that classical theoretical concepts and categories, what Beck calls 'zombie concepts', are far from dead and are still useful in helping us to understand suicide as a social phenomenon within a cosmopolitan transnational context.…”