From Cosmopolis to Globopolis: The Ramifications of Kantian Thought on the Foundations of the World Order–Communitarianism,

rganizational dimensions of globalization suggest patterns of global stratification; as globalization transforms the organization, distribution and exercise of power, it creates hierarchies and asymmetries of power and control of access to global networks and infrastructures. Concurrently, transnationalization of political activity itself, takes place in the context of greater internationalization of the state. In view of this, political space and political community are no longer defined and limited by the national, statist-oriented framework. Increasingly the phenomenon of power diffusion signifies emerging multilayered governance, marked by development of regional and global institutions and laws governing the administration and management of globalization. What impact then, do processes of globalization have on the citizen-subject, who is increasingly defined in terms of a socio-cultural cosmopolitan framework? It is important to underscore that the framework is not, in itself, a consensus-inducing paradigm, under the auspices of which citizens come to theorize and reify their [global] identities. It is ideologically fractured into two contentious theories, communitarianism and impartialism. The former, as the name suggests, argues for a value-laden, community-oriented identity, whereas the latter, calls for a moratorium on sentimental historicism in the name of reasoned and self-enacting neutrality. In this paper, I contend for an ‘accommodative ’ notion of cosmopolitanism, grounded in the substantive context of Kantian politico-philosophical thought, as most appropriate for harmonizing the amorphous processes of globalization vis-à-vis citizen-subject. Homo sum: Humani nihil a me alienum puto.