Cosmopolitism: citizenship beyond States

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the key principles underlying the emergence of a new concept of citizenship. Essentially, history tells us that individuals become citizens when they belong to a state. Therefore, the right to have rights would be strictly connected to the idea of belonging. According to such a notion of citizenship, refugees, migrants, and expatriates would be treated as citizens, thus having no rights at all. Contemporary global relations, however, have extended the reach of Human Rights making it mandatory to care for individuals who are beyond the borders of their homeland. Similarly, the rise of a new public space through worldwide communication networks brings about the need to guarantee freedom at both transnational and cosmopolitan levels. Based on these considerations one could ask: would those individuals beyond borders become new citizens of the world? It is necessary, therefore, to analyze the emergence of a notion of citizenship that would break the limits of borders, that is, of a global, transnational, and cosmopolitan citizenship.