Yidan Gao
social and cultural relations ( Massey , 1991 ). Consequently , cosmopolitan cities emerge as key nodes of cultural hybridisation , whereby one can encounter vast cultural diversities and people from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds ( Vanolo , 2017 ). In this context , cosmopolitanism discerns the significant roles of transnational mobility and encounters of difference in creating the identities of the cities and their inhabitants ( Georgiou , 2010 ). Cosmopolitanism generally involves the cultural openness to difference beyond national identities and parochial allegiance , and it is thus linked to world citizenship ( Werbner , 2018 , pp . 277-278 ; Hannerz , 1996 , p . 103 ; Malpas , 2009 , p . 192 ). The ways in which cosmopolitanism is expressed in the media is significant for the urban dwellers from different social groups as they could see their possibilities of engaging the social and economic life from their representations ( Georgiou , 2013 , p . 47 ). Cosmopolitanism can be expressed in various forms . This essay focuses on two competing forms of cosmopolitanism , the neoliberal andvernacular ( Georgiou , 2013 ;
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2017 ). It explores the debates |
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cosmopolitanism , the features |
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vernacular cosmopolitan cities |
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neoliberal |
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The concept of cosmopolitanism is contested and a significant debate around cosmopolitanism is whether the cosmopolitan subjectivities must be transnational elites . Hannerz ( 1996 , p . 103 ) argues that cosmopolitanism entails ‘ a willingness to engage with the Other ’ and ‘ an intellectual and aesthetic stance towards divergent cultural experiences ’. However , the construction of intellect and aesthetics demands cosmopolitans of their education and social status . This type of cosmopolitanism tends to be driven by consumption and it is often called ‘ aesthetic cosmopolitanism ’ ( Georgiou , 2017 , p . 639 ). However , Werbner recognises non-Eurocentric working-class immigrants as cosmopolitan citizens ( 1999 ), and she advocates a practised cosmopolitanism . Hannerz later ( 2004 ) acknowledges non-elite cosmopolitans when “ distancing oneself from parochial ties and