| By focusing on the politics and the political imagination of the "everyday," I offer an original contribution to cosmopolitical thinking. Much of what can be considered familiar cosmopolitan literature is dominated by state-centric notions of extending membership, rights, duties, and even dignity via institutional reforms, international courts, and international normative conventions. In short, cosmopolitical visions are often focused on the large-scale, highly visible, and headline- grabbing agendas. Thinking of the cosmopolitical in terms of the everyday, however, forces us to imagine what alternative forms of global governance could look like and encourages us to examine everyday cosmopolitical practices that are already, and always have been, present. For example, in this work I explore the importance of everyday cosmopolitical practices at the U.S./Mexico border region. I argue that there is a dual performance at play in these practices at the border. On one level, the events I describe can be understood as resistance against the state apparatus. Individuals and groups consciously, but carefully, challenge state laws, mandates, and limitations. On another level, these same events can also be seen as movements toward some sort of post-national unity, however fragile and fleeting. It is this unique relationship between resistance and solidarity that I find most interesting and profound in places such as border regions, where thinking and moving beyond the state, both literally and figuratively, are crucial to making life go on. |
