This document discusses how critical cosmopolitanism and border thinking theories could help address issues of Western dominance in political and social structures. Gloria Anzaldua's poem about living with a mixed racial identity highlights the pressures of assimilation into Western culture. Ramon Grosfoguel and Gerard Delanty explore how critical cosmopolitanism could articulate border thinking by creating more inclusive societies not dominated by a single ethnicity, culture or religion. Cosmopolitanism aims to change fundamental views of "otherness" to be more open and accepting of global diversity. Implementing these theories could help close cultural divides in multicultural societies currently influenced by Western ideologies.

1. Can critical cosmopolitanism help
articulate boarder thinking in
politics?

2. Gloria Anzaldua’s poem To live in the Borderlands means you is about the discourse of
living as a mixed-race women in a western dominated world. Anzaldua is of more than
one race and feels that her identity is compromised by the western dominance in her
society, which had caused her to feel ‘stuck’ in between the polarising worlds.
Anzaldua’s poem ended with the statement “To survive the Borderlands/ you must live
sin fronteras/ be a crossroads” (1996, p. 5) suggesting that those who are either
mixed race, of immigrant heritage, a minority or native in a western colonised society,
must have the ideology that they are “without borders” to survive living there. She
shows this in her poem by juxtaposing the loss of her culture to a war that her people
fight to maintain what they have left. Anzaldua makes specific reference to the loss of
her people’s native tongue, stating that ‘the wind’ had stolen the peoples ‘voice’. In
this circumstance we can compare the ‘wind’ to western culture who deems English
as best above all other languages (1996, p 4). Anzaldua’s poem opens the discussion
on the negative effects that western dominance has on other cultures through its
demand for hegemony. It is not the only Anzaldua who feels that there is a growing
divide between American nationalism and Latin-American identity, Ramon Grosfoguel
an associate professor in ethnic studies writes about ways that societies can
implement a new ideologies that change the western dominated discourse in politics.
In reference to Anzaldua’s poem we can see how Grosfoguel’s theory on boarder
thinking can help not only Latin-Americans with their cultural identity under western
governments but other minorities and ethnicities who feel the same pressures to
assimilate.

3. Grosfoguel explored the effects of coloniality on minorities in western society through the
historical discourse of the European colonial expansion. He theorises that the
“European/non-European divide” has structured the global powers and ideologies we
know today (2008, p. 6). Grosfoguel writes, “European patriarchy and European
notions of sexuality, epistemology and spirituality were exported to the rest of the
world through colonial expansion as the hegemonic criteria to raceialise, classify and
pathologise the rest of world’s population in a hierarchy of superior and inferior races”
(2008, p. 7). With the world becoming more intertwined then ever before, societies
that do not follow western influences in social constructions such as sexuality, race
and gender have become divided from the western ‘norms’. Gloria Anzaldua wrote of
a ‘Borderlands’ in her poem, a metaphorical ‘zone’ where individuals feel separated
from their race, culture and society because of the social pressures of western culture
in America. Grosfoguel explained that this because of “The continuity of colonial forms
of dominance after the end of colonial administrations, produced by colonial cultures
and structures in the modern/colonial capitalist world-system” (2008, p 8). The issue
of western dominance and power has become problematic in western societies that
are now vastly multi-cultural because those who follow societies rules are accepted
and those who do not are seen as ‘other’; i.e different, separate, not normal.

4. Most people have heard about the Earth Charter, a charter defining what it
means to be human and what that implies to humanities responsibility as a whole
species living on earth today. This charter is based off of the fundamental beliefs
associated with cosmopolitanism. Gerard Delanty stated that cosmopolitanisms
should “be seen as a cultural medium of societal transformation that is based on
world openness” (2006, p 27) This suggests that society could use cosmopolitan
theory to change how we currently interact with other cultures and ethnicities as
well as move forward from a western dominated framework for society.
Grosfoguel mentioned at the beginning of his article Eurozine that critical
cosmopolitanism may be able to ‘articulate’ border thinking and be implemented
in discourses not limited to nationalism and colonialism (2008, p. 1). Therefore if
a society like the United States used critical cosmopolitan ideologies as a
structure for handling their growing multicultural societies, we could possibly see
a closing of the divide between European and non-European cultures. Delanty
believes that through the language and fundamental ideologies of critical
cosmopolitanism we can build societies that are not dominated by the political
influences of one race, ethnicity, or religion but are inclusive and non-reductive to
these and other social categories (2006, p. 41).

5. “Cosmopolitanism is a connecting strand between sociology and political discourse in society and in
political theory. It had critical role to play in opening discursive spaces of world openness and thus
in resiting both globalisation and nationalism.” – Gerard Delanty, Cosmopolitan imagination: Critical
cosmopolitanism and social theory (2006, p. 44)
It is easy to theorise how the two theories of Border thinking and cosmopolitanism can be used
together to move away from western domination in how society is formed and maintained. Border
thinking demands a society that looks further than western philosophers, politicians, educators and
seeks answers to its multicultural societies in multicultural people and places. As quoted above by
Delanty, cosmopolitanism wants to limit western dominance by changing the fundamental
‘otherness’ of western culture to an inclusive ideology. This type of openness and acceptance
through its inclusive view makes what is local also global and that national borders are no more
than just lines on a map. Border thinking would be difficult to implement in societies that are
western dominated because of the residing colonial powers that diminish non-European influence
as something that is for ‘others’. However this problem will need answers soon because of
globalisation. People are travelling further, we can share data and money online, and we can live
almost anywhere in the world. For instance in a town where many cultures live under western
dominated ideologies such as the United States, we can expect a cultural divide between those
live by the new ideologies of western society and those who chose to maintain their heritage and
culture. This is why Grosfoguel seeks to find a fluid language that is spoken through multicultural
voices to best close the divide and stop the inequality that euro-centric ideologies have created in
society. Cosmopolitanism may be able to do this, but we cannot know for sure until social changes
have been made.