Abstract
The article aims to analyse the project of a cosmopolitan Europe and to show the validity not of its rejection, but rather, of its betrayal. My argument is that Europe has both historical and normative characteristics of a cosmopolitan kind. At the same time, Europe is also moving ‒ due to the current economic-financial and immigration crisis ‒ towards a cosmopolitanism of a different nature, which I call ‘market cosmopolitanism’, lacking any internal or external solidarity yet already embedded in the European Union constitutional project. In particular, I intend to develop the following three arguments: 1. that Europe can be considered a more specific historic space of potential affirmation of cosmopolitanism, resting on the principles and respect for the dignity of individuals and peoples; 2. that what I call the ‘normative cosmopolitan’ project of Europe can be traced in the articles of the Constitutional Treaties and the Charter of the European fundamental rights; 3. finally, that the betrayal of the aims of such project has been provoked by the alternative European project of ‘market cosmopolitanism’.
Massimo Pendenza è professore associato di Sociologia presso l’Università di Salerno, dove dirige il Centro di Studi Europei. Le sue più recenti pubblicazioni includono Societal cosmopolitanism: the drift from universalism towards particularism (Distinktion, 2017), Intimations of methodological nationalism in classical sociology? (EJST, 2016), ‘Cosmopolitan nuances in classical sociology: Reshaping conceptual frameworks’ (JCS, 15(4), 2015), ‘The Looming Shadows of the Walls. Is a Cosmopolitan Europe still Possible?’ (PaCo, 8(3), 2015, con V. Cicchelli), ‘Framing Societal Cosmopolitanism in Europe. A Theoretical-Empirical Research Study’ (PaCo, 8(3), 2015, con L. García-Faroldi), ‘Radicare il cosmopolitismo. La nozione di «cosmopolitismo sociale»’ (RIS, 2, 2015), Durkheim cosmopolita (a cura, con D. Inglis), Perugia, 2015 e Classical Sociology Beyond Methodological Nationalism (ed.), Leiden|Boston, 2014.
