Individuality and Collectivity in Changing Concepts of Community

Abstract

Cosmopolitan discourses are often conceived as a way of transforming and expanding traditional conceptions of political community. While this reference to community may be a helpful guide to the discussion, there is both ambiguity and potential in this concept. The contemporary quest for community includes many perspectives with their corresponding values, which often collide with each other because the meaning of community is informed by particularities and references to specific contexts, local challenges, cultural experiences, and social differences. Building on the point stated in the previous chapter about the requirement to uphold global plurality, I now argue for a reconsideration of the contemporary call for community in light of a multidimensional reinterpretation of this concept, so that we can differentiate between particularistic and universalist approaches as well as between conservative and critical views. This shall help us to better qualify the kind of structure at stake when we talk about the possibility of building cosmopolitan communities.