Cosmopolitanism as normatively guided paradigm : a study of green living in Hong Kong

Abstract

Triggered by transnational risks along with technological advances, Ulrich Beck argued that we are living in an age of cosmopolitanisation, which represents a paradigm shift from a methodological nationalism to a cosmopolitan vision in social science and theory. This assertion has spun a rapid increase in empirical research on really existing cosmopolitanism. There is, however, yet a conceptual framework which allows us to critically scrutinise how the process of cosmopolitanisation is operationalised and actuated. While different researchers focused on different facets and various adopted measurements, the normative dimension of cosmopolitanism, namely cosmopolitan values, has not been reflected clearly in previous studies. Research done mainly on transnationalisation and glocalisation has only made cosmopolitanism a relativistic notion in empirical terms. As an attempt to bridge these gaps, this study first proposes a two-stage investigation for understanding the importance of normative cosmopolitanism and value-based practice in the cosmopolitan process, especially in terms of transnational(ised) and glocal(ised) phenomena. Another step is then taken to illustrate how the inner process of cosmopolitanisation is being practised through focusing on a group of people devoted to promoting and practising green living in Hong Kong. By conducting 18 in-depth interviews and working closely with the respondents, this study hopefully offers not only a snapshot of green living in Hong Kong but also reveals the values that are embedded in the lived experience and lifestyle of these environmentalists. This research has found that the scope of the moral worldview of these informants has been expanded and informed by certain transnational values through their green-living practice. Meanwhile, the development of their own community and their practice of environmentalism or a normative lifestyle is indicative only of a process of a limited, 'rooted' cosmopolitanisation which is considered more as an individual-based or personal-based project rather than one driven by a much broader cosmopolitan vision and as a transnational project for embracing and celebrating a normative global order. In this context, the local actions and everyday practice of green living in Hong Kong at best is only illustrative of a first step in the process of cosmopolitanisation.