Cosmopolitanism can be an educational mission in terms of moral education. It is related to the moral education of citizens as well as their Bildung or formation. The issue under concern for the formation of contemporary world citizens, specifically on how to help students to become genuine world citizens in rhetoric and composition classrooms, speaks to the educational
dimension of cosmopolitan ideal.
2.4.1 The Formation of World Citizens
Philosophically, cultivation, transformation, and Bildung are all equals and inter-related in terms of the responsibility for oneself and others in the globalized world (Kemp, pp. 152-168). Therefore, education, or “moral training” (Kemp, p. 165) is of vital importance in contemporary cosmopolitan practice. Additionally, contemporary textbooks on technical communication lack tolerance and understanding between and among differences, as well as the active attitude and courage toward dialogues between and among cultures. What world citizens should strive for is how to solve concrete problems for individuals against state authorities and boundaries, which is the ideal and conducive strategy for each human being to go beyond ideological, geographical, and national limitations.
Hooft (2009) argues that cosmopolitanism should not be confined with narrow patriotism if the latter only means blind obedience to local loyalties rather than global responsibilities (p. 54). Hooft also argues that cosmopolitanism needs to be a global human rights ideal because all human beings should be regarded as equals and all human beings should help each other to get equal and universal human rights within and without international organizations such as the UN
(pp. 80-81). He claims that the ethical dimension of cosmopolitanism seeks for global justice in political engagement, which should be realized through global actions (p. 109). Further, he stresses the urgency of cosmopolitan ideal for the sake of lasting world peace (p. 140) and the desperate need for the entire human race to unite together as a global community in which each individual’s cultural difference can be tolerated in the hope of justice, equality, and better living condition for every one as equal community members (p. 169).
Sobré-Denton and Nilanjana Bardhan (2013) propose to cultivate cosmopolitanism for intercultural Communication. Drawing from Nussbaum’s idea on education, they argue that the cosmopolitan pedagogy helps human beings understand themselves through the lens of others (p. 149). Cosmopolitan pedagogy as a postcolonial approach is one that integrates fragmented identities and clashed civilizations with shared learning from each other with love and hope. They emphasize the importance of Freire’s hope theory, Woodin’s pedagogical perspective on dialogue and cultural identity, “teaching the value of teaching,” and challenging traditional and assimilationist notions of citizenship, all of which is in the hope of helping and preparing students in “transformative research and social action” both at global and local levels in the process of being and becoming world citizens (pp. 150-166). In addition, Kemp’s idea that the philosophy of education is a humanistic science lies in the essence of cosmopolitanism, and he raises the question “What is the secret to pedagogically sound education” if we all have to become world citizens (p. 169)?
In this dissertation, I define cosmopolitan pedagogy as the teaching approach that engages students in critical, transnational conversations about rhetoric and communication; cultivates students’ awareness and competence of their own identities in relation to others’
identities regarding citizenships; instructs students to become responsible world citizens who can critically communicate in the contexts of transnational media and technologies.
2.4.2 The Advantage of Cosmopolitanism & Its Connection to Transnational & Transcultural Rhetoric & Communication
Cosmopolitanism is mainly connected with political science, economics, sociology, psychology, rhetoric and communication, as well as intercultural research. The root of
cosmopolitanism is political because a world citizen is in the first place a political agent that can serve (work or contribute their labor and/or intelligence) at least in a foreign state, if not in one’s own state. The equality and fraternity of all the human beings are highly political ideas in that they don’t fully coexist with the current context of nation states. Additionally, without political action of multilateral consensus on world peace and cooperation, the economical development and equivalence is impossible to realize globally. The materialistic essence of cosmopolitanism is economic, or even capitalist for the current world condition of global capitalism.
Cosmopolitan theorists have to find ways that can better mobilize resources and balance the income gap between and among countries and peoples. Sociology and psychology would also be meaningful in cosmopolitan inquiries, for human beings are social animals and our psychical patterns should be studied. We need to understand our social patterns, thinking patterns, and origins and causes for the sake of not only understanding ourselves better, but to comprehend and/or interpret each other better as global citizens. For example, Hofstede et al. (2010)
suggested that human beings have different softwares/ways of thinking when approaching power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long/ short- term orientation, and indulgence/restraint. As fields devoted to efficacious communication,
rhetoric and communication are well placed to help with the public pedagogy on
cosmopolitanism. The multimodal writing classrooms where political, economic, and moral ideas are explained, debated, transmitted, and digested can become the place where public pedagogy (Holmes, 2016) of cosmopolitanism emerge and prosper.
Ethically speaking, cosmopolitanism is on the vantage point as compared to all the other disciplines owing to its moral, political, and economic considerations not only on people from one nation, but on all the human beings, regardless of their race, class, and nationality. The major difference of cosmopolitanism from other theories is that it searches for ethical standard of universal equality and fraternity, and world peace. Romantic and idealistic as it seems on the surface, it represents the most lofty humanistic ideal and the most ancient pursuit of the world’s people as one people and one family either in the religious endeavors or in the political cravings of intellectuals with ambitions to not only change the condition of one country, but also the condition of all the human beings and their mother earth. This pursuit of truth as a unified and holistic approach is encouraging and significant in this postmodern world, especially when differences are over emphasized and tolerance is forgotten when the rate of change and increased opportunities for international conflicts made possible by instantaneous communication
technologies.
Drawing from ideological to economic concerns, from ethical and moral standards to daily practices of such rules, rhetoric and communication realizes cosmopolitan ideas into every pragmatic aspects of human life, such as political propaganda, democratic speeches, mass media information transmission, and interpersonal interactions via various means of communication. Intercultural research is related with cosmopolitanism in that intercultural efforts are meant to bridge gaps caused by misunderstandings in cultures. Therefore, cosmopolitan ideal is significant
to the teaching of composition in writing and communication classrooms because the clashes of civilizations and the mobility that globalization brings on requires our students to have
cosmopolitan awareness and responsibilities, as well as multicultural awareness, tolerance, literacies, and competences in globalized workplaces.
The postmodern subject, its fragmentation, and the fragmentation of culture(s) and cultural products from souvenirs to technological communication platfoms should be emphasized in technical communication and technical writing classrooms because it is essential to the idea of world-citizenship and how to build the new Babel tower with multicultural
literacies in the digital era. Before I embark on the building of a new transnational rhetoric and communication model, however, I’d like to invite my readers on an observation and analysis of a particular case in chapter 2: Thatcher’s intercultural rhetoric model, which is an exemplary example in the design and revision of technical and professional textbooks and handbook in general.
3 THATCHER’S INTERCULTURAL RHETORIC & COMMUNICATION MODEL: