Postscript

The Troubling Travels of Cosmopolitics

Bibliographic Data

ID8925112
AuthorsM Blaser (0000-0001-5613-6669, Memorial University of Newfoundland, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-7
Publication date2026-03-28
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnos (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1844 • E-ISSN: 1469-588X
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00141844.2026.2650479
OpenAlexW7142451790
LanguageEN
References cited11

In this commentary, I reflect on the illuminating effects of comparative play. Reading the contributions from the vantage point of work on cosmopolitics and political ontology in Latin America, it examines what comparison brings into view and what it unsettles. The contrast drawn between cosmopolitical arrangements in Southeast Asia and those in the Americas is shown to be illuminating insofar as similar histories of entanglement, accommodation, and pragmatic coexistence are recognized. The commentary argues that the value of cosmopolitics lies less in cataloguing regional styles than in producing moments of hesitation that make visible suppressed conflicts and taken-for-granted settlements. By putting context into conversation, the contributions open space for rethinking the absence of guarantees in cosmopolitics, the political effects of its disruptions, and the need for situated, careful analytical interventions. It thus invites future discussions on what cosmopolitics does, rather than what it is.

Context (archaeology) · Latin Americans · Ontology · Politics · Reading (process) · Space (punctuation) · Value (mathematics) · Decolonial Thought and Epistemologies · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

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