Intercultural Dialogues in Third Spaces: A Study of Learning Experiences of Museum Visitors

Bodo (2012) called for the need of museum exhibitions to create “third spaces” where individuals can cross the boundaries of belonging (both physical and psychological) to engage in intercultural dialogues. The imaginary cultural space of museum has propelled us into a realization that we are in an era where interculturality, transculturalism, and the eventual prospect of identifying a cosmopolitan citizenship can become a reality. Predicated on a five-month ethnography work at a provincial museum in British Columbia, Canada, this research explores the following questions: how have cultural and historical museum exhibitions put us in contact with the other and foster an understanding of the other? And how has transculturalism led to the establishment of a cosmopolitan citizenship? This study lends support to the potentiality of a cultural and historical museum transforming into “third spaces” where visitors may actively engage in exploration of complex multitudes of cultural identities and cosmopolitan citizenship. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on “third spaces” and transculturalism by providing an empirical study of learning experiences of visitors in museums. It reaffirms the notion of transculturalism by proposing a new humanism in recognition of the other, and in expressing oneself in a conscious subjective manner with cultural empathy. From a practical perspective, it suggests that in order to encourage international visitors to cross the cultural and psychological boundaries and engage in dialogues, the museum professionals may design interactive programs in a creative manner. It also suggests that museum administrators improve their services to more diverse groups of visitors to enhance inclusiveness.

Children as Cosmopolitan Citizens: Reproducing and Challenging Cultural Hegemony

The article argues that, although digital and social media provide space and means for children's cosmopolitan citizenship, the tendency to reproduce cultural and ethnic stereotypes and prejudice prevalent in mainstream media can limit their capability and willingness to act and think as such. Drawing upon qualitative participatory research conducted with more than seventy children living in the Czech Republic, the article explores how children's media practice had a tendency to reproduce cultural hegemony. The paper ultimately argues that multicultural education and media education can together support children in reflecting on and challenging cultural hegemony, while at the same time potentially contribute to their transnational participation and cooperation with the use of digital and social media.

Between Scylla and Charybdis?

In 1792 foreigners flocked to France to participate in the new republican regime, redefining the nation as the conduct of popular sovereignty. A number of American, British, and Irish foreigners formed a club in Paris, the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man (Société des Amis des Droits de l'Homme), among whom Irish republicans were a key component. Eager to “revolutionize” Britain and Ireland, they contributed to the rise in tensions and, ultimately, to the outbreak of war between France and Britain. The author argues that these Irish, because of their colonial experience, were a crucial factor in the redefinition of and opposition between British imperial and French republican models of nation and citizenship. Their defense of a cosmopolitan citizenship ideal was violently rejected in Britain and was severely tested by the “Terror” in France. En 1792, de nombreux étrangers vinrent en France pour participer à l’élaboration du nouveau régime républicain, redéfinissant la nation comme le vecteur de la souveraineté populaire. Plusieurs Américains, Anglais, Irlandais et Ecossais formèrent un club à Paris, la Société des amis des droits de l'homme (SADH), parmi lesquels les Irlandais furent une composante clé. Désireux de « révolutionner » la Grande-Bretagne et l'Irlande, ils contribuèrent à la montée des tensions et à l’éclatement du conflit entre la France et la Grande-Bretagne. Cet article cherche à démontrer que ces Irlandais, du fait de leur expérience coloniale, jouèrent un rôle central dans la redéfinition et l'opposition entre le modèle impérial britannique et le modèle français républicain de la nation et de la citoyenneté. Leur défense d'un idéal cosmopolite de citoyenneté suscita un violent rejet en Grande-Bretagne et fut mise à rude épreuve pendant la « Terreur » en France.

‘Cosmopolitan Citizenship’, Territorial Borders, and Bringing Denationalized Terrorists to Justice

This article challenges scholarly claims that a post-national ‘cosmopolitan citizenship’ — an expanded and less territorially bounded belonging of ‘humanity’ — has been emerging in the international criminal justice context. In examining the contemporary denationalization of terrorists from the under-explored angle of criminal justice, this article argues that states’ territorial borders prevent denationalized terrorists — deemed enemies of ‘humanity’ — from being brought to justice. Some states strip citizenship from terrorists without holding them accountable for terrorist offences and international crimes, subsequently deporting them to — or leaving them stranded in — states which are, according to international criminal law, ‘unable’ or ‘unwilling’ to prosecute. As such, states’ territorial borders serve as a ‘shield’ which not only enable denationalized terrorists to avoid accountability for their terrorist offences and international crimes, but which also enable states to avoid their international obligations to bring terrorists to justice. This case study of denationalized terrorists not only demonstrates the enduring relevance of territoriality to international criminal justice but also broadly demonstrates how post-national ‘citizenship’ remains tied to the territorial state in a globalized world.

Advertising Homeownership through Cultural Capitalism: Neoliberal Making of New Shanghai Middle-Class Dream

Private homeownership has increasingly become a kind of new obsession and a symbol of upward mobility among the emerging middle class in post-Mao Chinese society. This essay studies the neoliberal making of the new Shanghai middle-class dream by exploring how this dream is invented and imagined through the pursuit of cosmopolitan citizenship, socio-spatial class distinction, and tiered lifestyles. It analyzes and problematizes the enduring charm of Shanghai as a global “city of magic” continues to attract those who aspire to eventually own a piece of property and display cultural capital of this highly unaffordable neoliberal city. Through a series of distinct case studies of recent real estate advertisement, interior design philosophy, and signature furniture stores and architecture magazines whose storytelling aesthetics are middle-class-inspired and focused, the essay critiques the way in which private homeownership is engineered, advertised, and made as one of the key prerequisites for the new Shanghainese (xin Shanghairen) to become middle class in the past two decades. It argues that the making of the new Shanghai middle-class dream is problematically preconditioned by a type of state-market promotion and advertisement of private homeownership and urban citizenship that ultimately synchronizes with the state-capitalist, neoliberal making of a moderately prosperous (xiaokang) society where class distinctions have revived to dominate the social, cultural, and economic discourses of a bourgeois Shanghai in the age of global capitalism.

Becoming Cosmopolitan Citizens Architects

This paper presents findings from fourteen qualitative interviews conducted with students of architecture from eleven schools of the Nordic Baltic Academy of Architecture (NBAA). The interviews were analysed using the abbreviated Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) method. The findings reveal that students consider a meaningful architectural education one that helps them making ethical design choices. To do so respondents indicate that schools should help students find their inner compass, develop their professional skills, and ethical attitudes to think independently and make a difference in their society and beyond. Three narratives emerge which describe the multiple roles of an architect in our society: the dissident intellectual, the ethical professional, and the storyteller. On the basis of these findings and with the support of the work of Henry Giroux “Critical Theory and Rationality in Citizenship Education” and Martha Nussbaum “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism”, a framework referred to as “Cosmopolitan Citizenship Architecture Education” is developed.

Multicultural Competence and Cosmopolitan Citizenship in the Hispanic-Japanese Context of Higher Education

The increase in the internationalization of universities has been accompanied by an increase in multiculturalism in classrooms. Due to this situation, with the objective of knowing the conceptions of university professors around pluricultural competence and attending to the connection with their positioning in relation to the models of cosmopolitan citizenship; a mixed research is developed in the Hispanic-Japanese context of higher education, focusing attention on education and social sciences professors. In general, it is concluded that there are connections between the positioning of multiculturalism and cosmopolitan citizenship. Thus, the university professors of both countries highlight the advantages of cultural plurality in educational environments and, despite the fact that there is governmental support for academic internationalization, in the sample of Japanese professors, there is a greater concern about the preservation of national identity in cultural plurality.