From “Atlantic” Cosmopolitanism to Minimalist Cosmopolitanism

The Subjectification of Latin America in a Plural Modernity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the restrictive nature of the currents and experiences usually deemed “cosmopolitan” in Latin America (from the Enlightenment of Mexican Independence to modern Neoliberalism) because they are limited to a cosmopolitanism we might call “Atlantic” due to its links to liberalism and westernization. Here, this concept of cosmopolitanism is contrasted to a more pluralistic, one contextual and minimalistic that develops with the recent international prominence of several Latin American nations and the emergence of a new way of dealing with regional integration that creatively assumes the conditions of growing interdependence and global symmetry. My intention is to demonstrate that cosmopolitanism is not necessarily opposed to the nation­state but may even strengthen it. This minimalist cosmopolitanism has not emerged simply because of the supposed devaluation of nation­states but, rather, is conceivable as a universal project precisely because nation­states and emerging –formerly subordinated– societies are playing increasingly active roles in world society.