Ancient Globalization and Metacosmopolitism – Lessons to be learned, Rooted Cosmopolitanism: Toward a Glocalization of Heritage and Heritage Practices

This presentation explores the truthfulness and/or hypocrisy behind our cosmopolitan quest, questioning if we would still be committed to explore shared elements of values and heritage with the rest of the world, if those we consider “authentically ours” become predominantly seen as secondary or peripheral.
In that context, it aims at revealing elements of early cosmopolitan ideas and concepts connected to the continuum of the globalization process from antiquity to modernity. Using the globalization theories, I propose a model that explores the holy grail of the Western “uniqueness”, the Classical “Greco-Roman” world, through a hypothesis that it represents a transitory glocalized form of an older cosmopolitan one.
Furthermore, suggesting that this primordial cosmopolitanism is imbedded in numerous and diverse contemporary traditions and cultures around the world, I propose that this shared global potential can be exploited only if we are able to move beyond our own Western particularities including important elements of our scientific and ideological norms.