What is Postdigital Cosmopolitanism?
Channel: ReDICo Channel
Date: 2023-05-18

For more details:

Lenehan, F. (2022). Digital Cosmopolitan Flows in the Lifeworld: Categorizing the Labyrinth of Postdigital Cosmopolitanism. In: Interculture Journal, 21 (36), p. 13-33.
Link to the full text: 
https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/receive/jportal_jparticle_01230079
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About ReDICo:

As cultural boundaries blur and virtual and physical spaces merge, interculturality and digitalization form oureveryday  world.  We  are  convinced  that  these  dual  concepts  should  be  viewed  together,  as  they  arefrequently deeply entangled in various contexts. This is what our research project ReDICo is dedicated to: Researching Digital Interculturality Co-operatively.

Our  vision  is  of  a  scholarly  Intercultural  Communication,  informed  by  the  perspectives  of  a  critical  andculturally-aware interdisciplinary Internet Studies. ReDICo also seeks to be an inclusive and environmentally-conscious  research  network,  connecting  academics  and  non-academics  world-wide.  We  don't  just  study Digital Interculturality, we also actually do it!

For more information: www.redico.eu

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Transcription:

The digital has made many things possible, like chatting to  friends worldwide. Digital tools further global interaction. The tools themselves often retain traces and links to various parts of the world, be it software created in Bangalore or algorithms programmed in San Francisco.
How could we describe and analyse those aspects of our world?  Maybe  postdigital cosmopolitanism?
Cosmopolitanism? We’re not talking here about cocktails. Nor magazines.
Cosmopolitanism is an old idea. It means to have a sense of the world, of being a citizen of something beyond the local. 
There are three main forms of cosmopolitanism: 
A philosophical form; imagining better worlds and shared ethical and political solutions
A descriptive form; analysing feelings of solidarity beyond the local,
And a processual form; examining how global interactions result in various transformations.  
Okay, cosmopolitanism has been introduced now. What about postdigital? This is a new idea. It means that separating a digital and a material world doesn’t make sense, as they are intertwined.   
Combining both of these concepts we can talk about postdigital cosmopolitanism from an everyday, processual and normative-philosophical point of view.
What does that mean?

First, global digital interactions happen every day in our lives. For example, the videos we view online often have global origins and reach. Also, algorithms can nudge us to act in certain ways online, without us even noticing it.  

Secondly, online interactions result in transformations in our behaviour. Meaning: Internet-users may, for example, engage in activism due to interaction with global hashtags.     

Thirdly, we can criticise  the existing norms of the digital world and work on re-imagining them: to create a fairer, truly global Internet. 

Many interactions of the online world may be deeply positive: if we only consciously use and shape them this way. 
And maybe you really do need a Cosmopolitan after all. The cocktail, that is.