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From the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, to the escalating effects of climate change, public consciousness of existential threat waxes and wanes. Despite the occasional intense capacity to imagine the global consequences of our cumulative actions, we seem to lack a collective will to act alternatively and systematically to conserve the fundamental conditions for human life. This book confronts the basic challenges of insecurity, violence, genocide, refugee displacement and technoscientific intrusions on embodiment and identity - but it also points to alternative ways of thinking and practicing in an unsettled world. It argues for an engaged cosmopolitanism, grounded in place and guided by local and global debates around principles of what constitutes good ways of living. In order to create a positive change, we must better understand the human condition in crisis, the causes of the global crisis and the possible pathways to human flourishing.
List of contents
Preface; Part I. The Dark Matter of Our Time: 1. The future of humanity does not look good; 2. Redefining basic concepts; Part II. Confronting Global Contradictions: 3. The existential unsettling of security; 4. Descending into postcolonial violence; 5. Disrupting the hopes of reconciliation; 6. Dehumanizing refugees; 7. Abstracting embodiment; Part III. Struggling for Positive Human Development: 8. The ontological weight of human security: 9. Reconsidering humanitarian intervention; 10. Creating capacities for human development; 11. Bringing Cosmopolitanism down to earth; 12. Moving towards a manifesto; Appendix: a note on method; Glossary for engaged practice; References.
About the author
Paul James is Professor of Globalization and Cultural Diversity in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He was previously Scientific Advisor to the Mayor of Berlin and Director of the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme. Paul's previous publications include Globalization Matters (with Manfred Steger, 2019) and Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism (2006).
