Study of Cosmopolitanism

Dian Jin

Prof. Keane

GPS Writing Workshop

April 23 2015

Cosmopolitanism and Solidarity

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        Since the last two decades, “globalization” has been quite the buzzword for economists, politicians and those concerned about what is taking place in this world with unstoppable momentum. Technology innovations and human’s inherent desire for accumulating wealth have provided lasting boosts for injecting further integration into social veins and make them more interconnected than one would imagine several years ago. It is no longer a fantasy to make contacts with the other side of the planet. This plain fact points to the peril of globalization that there is no regulation in deciding what get to travel over miles. This is where Appiah, in Education for Global Citizenship, justifies the urgent need for a cosmopolitan spirit: in this global community people thusly assume certain responsibility for each other and a cosmopolitan spirit serves to provide a sound instruction.

Renewed Ideology Demands Education

        Yet another significant change brought by globalization alongside progressing technology and complex-structured economy, has to be shifts in ideology, particularly in terms of the way people view the world. Appiah points out that human has evolved for millennials in the context of small tribe units where only lives of those in proximity are relevant. Nevertheless, globalization of the modern world obligates people to adopt a broader view of a world community and to recognize a renewed concept of civic identity, namely global citizenship. Despite the discourse whether the progress of globalization meant decline or renaissance of citizenship, an inerrant claim is that the notion of global citizenship is on the rise. Apparently, ideas as grand as perceptions of society or as personal as self-identification, respond to the prevalent globalization by altering themselves continuously; expectedly, how governors—the government or national institutions—should guide such volatility so that the minds of the public could properly pass through the phase of switching, generates an ongoing social topic.

How Appiah Would Do to Implement Cosmopolitan Education  

        One significant way though haunted by dispute, is to let education perform its intrinsic duty—cultivate citizenry with ideas and values that work best for the contemporary society to function efficiently. To treat cosmopolitanism as one of the guidelines that direct civic education is contestable, for the discussion of the contents of local curriculum and whether the idea itself proves to be a universal value does not expect conclusive answers, let alone another vigorous argument whether forceful inculcation, even if for the greater good of society, is moral. Nonetheless, Appiah skims the discussion whether cosmopolitanism is suitable for all and instead focuses on elaborating the benefits and specific approach to achieve such benefits. He provides a possibility, suggesting that “Cross-national education projects” are “what we should be doing, as far as we can”(Appiah, 92) to foster conversations across borders, so that the progress of popularizing cosmopolitanism can be released from the restricting forces from national, ethnic and other segregations.