Title

Empathetic Cosmopolitanism: South Africa and the Quest for Global Citizenship

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

One feature of Nelson Mandela's legacy in South Africa is his concept of post-apartheid society as a cosmopolitan space. Sadly, recent developments in the country suggest a return to nativist and bigoted world views and cast a dark shadow over his legacy. There is an urgent necessity to review this aspect of Mandela's vision. In so doing, this paper highlights the ethical advantages of cosmopolitanism, and argues that what sets Mandela's cosmopolitanism apart from others is his emphasis on empathy. I therefore suggest that empathetic cosmopolitanism is a particularly South African worldview. In support of this idea of empathetic cosmopolitanism, I discuss such recent theories as 'incompleteness', 'multiple identity', and 'entanglement', suggested by South African thinkers, as registers of Mandela's global citizenship.

Version

The work available here is the abstract of the article. Locate the full-text of the article using the DOI below.

Publication Title

Strategic Review for Southern Africa

Volume Number

39

Issue Number

1

First Page

236

Last Page

255

Link to Full Text

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