ABSTRACT
Postwesternization points to the need to rethink the relationship between globalization and cosmopolitanism, particularly the central idea of the oneness of the world that is such an important dimension of globalization. Cosmopolitanism has been referred to in this book as a politics of space precisely because it accords a central place to consideration of the relationship between the individual, the communities to which that individual belongs, and the world. In other words, a cosmopolitanism perspective necessitates a problematization of political space because it cannot be assumed that the political spaces under consideration are ‘given’, familiar to us, and associated with the nation-state. Following this line of reasoning, we cannot make assumptions about the spaces within which an individual acts, the extent, scope, and geographical cohesiveness of the communities with which he or she is engaged, and the globality (or otherwise) of the political realm which impacts upon or constrains an individual and/or the imagination which informs that individual’s political choices.
