The Cosmopolitan Standard of Civilization: A Critical Sociology of Elite Belonging Inside
This article asks what it takes to belong among the “cosmopolitan elite” in international society.
With a reflexive sociological sensibility, it examines the ways in which diplomats of the Indian
Foreign Service have sought to secure recognition and equal standing in international society by
inhabiting a cosmopolitan habitus. Instead of analysing cosmopolitanism in the conventional
register of political theory as an egalitarian international ethic, the article considers “actually
existing cosmopolitanism” as a transnational elite aesthetic. It suggests that the demands of a
cosmopolitan habitus themselves constitute a new standard of civilization, imposed on Indian
diplomats not by Western fiat but through a process of cultural self-policing. In this process,
dominant upper-class and upper-caste members of the Foreign Service impose this standard
against internal Others, including those of lower class and caste status. The performance of the
cosmopolitan habitus serves a social function in international society – it is a social strategy by
which Indian diplomats seek to find parity inside the global diplomatic club. As such, the
performance lays bare the unequal rules of elite belonging in a supposedly pluralistic but
ultimately deeply socially stratified international society. Ultimately, the exclusionary social logics
of “actually existing cosmopolitanism” also signify the political failure of a postcolonial project of
solidarity, democratization, and diversity.
Date: 27 May 2021, 15:00 (Thursday, 5th week, Trinity 2021)
Venue: Teams Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_YzNjNmNhZDMtNmUxNi00ZjZmLTlkZGQtZmY4ZjM3OGIzNmQw%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%25229dacfb99-ec01-41bb-82ed-785d5b32e2d7%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=713f2cc5-c6ed-416e-a440-be1b73ab6f19&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true
Speakers: Speaker to be announced
Organiser contact email address: benjamin.graham@sant.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Not required
Booking url: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_YzNjNmNhZDMtNmUxNi00ZjZmLTlkZGQtZmY4ZjM3OGIzNmQw%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%
Audience: Public
Editor: Benjamin Graham