Rhythms of Global Urbanisation and Cosmopolitanism

What is it about?

In reference to Paul Stoller, we consider acting methods a ‘sensuous scholarship’ and argue that rhythm allows us to explore preverbal aspects of cosmopolitanism and feelings of belonging or alienation in the urban space. Actors explore how airports, supermarkets and cemeteries react to gait, respiration and heartbeat and how people adopt or impose rhythms. Such investigations might appear superficial from an academic perspective, but they bear resemblance to ethnographic fieldwork. Our aim is to expand anthropological concepts, methods and forms of representation.

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Why is it important?

Since global interdependencies are a feature of urbanisation, Kwame Anthony Appiah’s pleading for an education in ‘cosmopolitan citizenship’ is forward-looking. Given increasing mobility, handling different urban rhythms is as important as dealing with different languages.

Perspectives