ABSTRACT
“More than one and less than many” has become a refrain in depictions of multiplicity. Annemarie Mol used it to succinctly capture the result of operations that make a variety of practices hold together as a singular thing. This chapter explores some consequences of the proposition that multiplicity can be figured in at least two different ways: as diffraction, where the operations of singularization explored by Mol are more easily carried out; and as divergence, where singularization is not necessarily an option. The exploration is part of a larger project to rework the notion of cosmopolitics first proposed by Isabelle Stengers and later taken up by Bruno Latour. The chapter argues that their conception of cosmopolitics as a project oriented toward the composition of a common world is predominantly informed by the figuration of multiplicity as diffraction, and thus it very much resembles a process of singularization writ large. In this context, foregrounding multiplicity as divergence opens a path to probe the limits of this conception of cosmopolitics, to inquire into the different ways in which multiplicity holds together, and to envision alternative forms of cosmopolitics.
