This is an ambitious book, both in theoretical scope and range of topics. Promising nothing less than “to demonstrate the empirical and normative significance of cosmopolitanism for critical social theory” (p. ix), Gerard Delanty presents his theory of “critical cosmopolitanism” in 10 tightly written chapters, starting with a brief review of the rise and decline of classical cosmopolitanism and ending with an insightful assessment of the prospects for intercultural dialogue in a “post-Western world.” Between these bookends, Delanty takes on, with much skill, such thorny normative issues as cosmopolitan citizenship and multiculturalism, global ethics and the problem of violence, modernity and global history, and the role of religion in a cosmopolitan society. Seeking to live up to his self-imposed challenge of empirical relevance, this British sociologist also addresses a variety of concrete cultural and political issues, particularly the tensions within a growing European Union drawn to the promise of economic and political integration while, at the same time straining to let go of deeply engrained practices of cultural exclusion. Since all of these topics are rich enough to deserve a book-length treatment, each one of them could have easily derailed the author's overall focus on applying his “new kind of imagination” to the global problems of our time (p. 2). It speaks to his iron discipline as both a writer and first-rate thinker that he manages to stay on message throughout the book.

This review confines itself to introducing and evaluating the book's central thesis and overarching problematique. Delanty wisely opens his discussion of cosmopolitanism by pointing to the remarkable impact of globalization on social life over the last few decades. Arguing that this “overwhelming interconnectivity of the world” has brought about a “tremendous transformation of social relations,” he rightly posits that it is “no longer possible to think of nation-states, capitalism, the environment, citizenship, borders, consumption and communication in the same way.” But he then confronts the reader with a rather sweeping claim: “Theories of globalization do not provide an interpretation of the social world that extends the methodological horizon of social analysis beyond a critique of some of the prevailing assumptions of modern society.” He goes so far as to contend that even comprehensive analyses of globalization—here he explicitly refers to Manuel Castells's magisterial three-volume theory of the network society—have failed to elaborate a normative theoretical framework and thus remain stuck on an empirical level of analysis. Just to be clear: Delanty explicitly affirms that globalization does constitute a worthy subject for social research. His quarrel is with nearly all of the existing literature on globalization theory (with the noted exception of Roland Robertson's body of work). In Delanty's view, the pertinent literature lacks a significant philosophical or methodological framework: The “recognition of globalization as a reality has been incorporated into social and political analysis without leading to a significant shift in social and political theory” (all citations pp. 1–2).

Let us pause at this critical juncture for just a moment and reflect. After all, Delanty's opening claims are quite weighty. They not only allege the normative paucity of globalization theory but also furnish the raison d'etre for rethinking critical social theory along the lines of his cosmopolitan imagination. One sympathizes with the author's laudable efforts to interject contemporary discussions of globalization into what still remains, for the most part, an insulated and Eurocentric field of Anglo-American “political theory.” Yet this reviewer finds the claim of globalization theory's philosophical and normative thinness rather overstated. Fortunately, Robertson is not the only global studies scholar who has grappled with the subjective dimensions of globalization. To name but a few others: David Harvey, Robert Cox, James Mittelman, Mark Rupert, Benjamin Barber, Timothy Luke, Michael Veseth, Leslie Sklair, Jan Aart Scholte, and this reviewer have long explored the ideological dimensions of globalization. Thinkers such as Jeffrey Alexander, Nestor Garcia Canclini, Dennis Altman, John Dryzek, George Yudice, Valentine Moghadam, Alison Brysk, Michael J. Shapiro, Roland Bleiker, Spike Peterson, Raewyn Connell, and Cynthia Enloe have investigated normative dimensions of globalization related to art, identity, gender, violence, race, aesthetics, human rights, global democracy, North–South relations, global climate change, multiculturalism, civil society, and militarism. Scholars such as Amartya Sen, Toni Erskine, James Rosenau, Stephen Bronner, Paul W. James, and Amy Chua have explicitly addressed the impact of globalization on the production of cosmopolitan forms of consciousness. And this list of normatively inclined globalization scholars goes on. Naturally, one would not expect Delanty to reference, much less discuss, all of these authors, but it is puzzling not to find a single one of these names in the bibliography of his book.

The good news is that globalization theorists have actually made a richer normative contribution than Delanty would have us believe, which does not detract from his larger point that subjective dimensions of globalization “in here” have not received the same attention in the pertinent literature as objective aspects “out there.” Hence, in spite of overstating both the poverty of globalization theory and the novelty of his theoretical initiative, he is quite right to link his case for a “cosmopolitan imagination” to the argument that the subjective dimension of globalization is an important area of research in its own right. This intellectual imperative lends his call for a cosmopolitan imagination much of its urgency.

Drawing on the work of German social theorists—above all Ulrich Beck—Delanty places with much care and skill at the core of his cosmopolitan analysis the idea of “immanent transcendence,” derived from the Hegelian-Marxist philosophical legacy (p. 251). Grounded in the analysis of concretely existing problems that provide the immanent terms of social transformation, the author links his cosmopolitan vision to an investigation of the transformative potential of social agents' moral and political self-understanding as they face today's global challenges. For Delanty, such critical cosmopolitanism allows social and political theorists to engage with globalization. It helps to combat the lingering methodological nationalism in the social sciences; to expose the Eurocentric biases remaining in much of history and philosophy; to draw attention to the interaction of global forces with local contexts in concrete settings of everyday life; to foster critical thinking that traverses national boundaries while at the same time challenging the market-centered paradigm of neoliberal globalism; to recognize cultural difference as both a reality and a positive ideal for social policy; to allow for creative reinventions of multiple forms of political community around a global ethics; and to encourage mutual criticism and self-problematization within the safe context of respectful and appreciative cross-cultural dialogues (pp. 6–7). And it is precisely in the difficult task of putting the empirical flesh of local concreteness onto the normative skeleton of the global imaginary that Delanty's study most excels.

Fifty years ago, C. Wright Mills managed to unsettle the rather complacent Anglo-American social science establishment by daring to suggest that the field had become politically irrelevant and morally compromised. Most scholars, he argued, had either sought refuge in the quietude of abstract theory or fallen into the pit of toothless empiricism. Both options had brought them ample professional rewards but scarcely advanced knowledge of how to improve modern society. Guided by a broad humanistic vision, Mills called for a “new sociological imagination” capable of identifying and understanding the most serious social problems plaguing industrial society at midcentury—with the intention of helping to advance the cause of social justice. Following in his large intellectual footsteps, Delanty's The Cosmopolitan Imagination represents a welcome addition to social and political theory concerned with addressing the intertwined problems of our globalizing world.