[Discussion] UPDATE: Sites of Cosmopolitanism: Citizenship, Aesthetics, Culture (Australia) (4/30/05; 7/6/05-7/8/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: David Ellison <D.Ellison@griffith.edu.au>

Subject: UPDATE: Sites of Cosmopolitanism: Citizenship, Aesthetics, Culture
(Australia) (4/30/05; 7/6/05-7/8/05)

Abstract due date extended to April 30.
New information about Keynote Speakers has been added

Sites of Cosmopolitanism: Citizenship, Aesthetics, Culture
July 6-8, 2005
Griffith University, Southbank Campus, Brisbane, Australia

The concept of cosmopolitanism is currently enjoying a strong resurgence 
across
the social sciences and humanities. Cosmopolitanism is of interest to 
theorists
and practitioners alike in a range of disciplines, including 
architecture and
urban planning, cultural studies, sociology and political science, history,
philosophy, law and fine arts.

Cosmopolitanism as understood in contemporary social theory is 
associated with
the increased mobilities of global populations which are commonly 
heralded as an
indicator of the contemporary time-space compression and as the ultimate 
victory
of the new global social, economic, political and cultural environment. 
Not only
are modern individuals continuously caught in a tension between the 
local and
the global but, more importantly, these changes are seen as responsible 
for the
creation of a new kind of contemporary identities that are quite 
different from
the traditional ones: presumably more open, tolerant and flexible. In the
contemporary literature such new identity dispositions are identified 
with the
notion of cosmopolitanism.

The notion of cosmopolitanism is more than 2000 years old and it means that
individuals feel as ?citizens of the world? rather than people who are
exclusively attached to local communities and environments. Somewhat
contradictory, the notion of cosmopolitanism has been resurrected 
against the
backdrop of new global inequalities, war on terror and new anxieties 
associated
with the spread of the global economy and new constellations of 
international
power.

Conference themes:

Citizenship
  cosmopolitan citizens ? who are they?
  governance and cosmopolitan individuals
  working-class cosmopolitans
  cosmopolitanism and its relationship to western liberalism
  cosmopolitanism and racism
  Australia?s political climate and the possibility of cosmopolitanism
  Cosmopolitanism and terror
  Cosmopoliticians?

Aesthetics
  cosmopolitan spaces
  the design of cosmopolitan zones
  the cosmopolite body
  laboratories of advanced cosmopolitanism: airports? hotels? refugee camps?
  literary cosmopolitanisms/cosmopolitan canons
  imaging cosmopolitanism

Culture
  cosmopolitanism and consumption theory
  historical cosmopolitanisms
  cosmopolitan theologies
  the cosmopolitan consumer omnivore
  the disseminators of cosmopolitanism, eg designers, marketers, architects
  cosmopolitanism and the metropolitan experience
  cosmopolitanism and the media
  cosmopolitan sexualities

Dr David Ellison
School of Arts, Media and Culture
Macrossan Building N16, Nathan Campus
Griffith University
Brisbane, Queensland 4111

ph:   61 7 3875 7906
Fax: 61 7 3875 5187

Co-Convenor Sites of Cosmopolitanism Conference, Brisbane July 6-8 2005
http://www.griffith.edu.au/centre/cpci/cosmo/home.html



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