Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism refers to the idea of intercultural world citizenship as it exists at the local and global levels. The literal definition of the word and the concept date back to ancient Greece and the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope. The term comes from the Greek κόσμος (cosmos), meaning “world,” and πολίτης (politēs), meaning citizen, so its literal translation is “world citizen.” Recently, cosmopolitanism has enjoyed a renaissance, due largely to the context of globalization and the interconnectedness of today’s world. Cosmopolitanism involves an understanding that individual actions at local levels (e.g., buying gasoline) have impacts at the global level, and vice versa (e.g., the events in the Middle East affect gas prices in Milwaukee). This knowledge, that people belong to a world that is greater than, ...