K\*

'Methodological

-) \^? /- c** t
-

'"'t\
globaliza.tio" Y:'::

^J;ilffi ffi ecological, political,

of new power opPortunities and neu' iociety means ihu ".g".,ce "tt which break up and social'spacesfor actioniiving and percep.tion, and,socielv' politics muddle the nation-state orthbdoxy of

TransnationalCivil Society: How a CosmopolitanVision is Emergi.g

nationalism' and its refutation: provisional appraisal a

(1) Th?s is most conspicuolrs where transnational corporations are the given the opportunity to spread jobs and taxes around on maximize thev before, as that, t"uy i in such ivorld chesstbard the their profits n,hilst (nct r-iecessirily intentionaliy) depriving states of acti'e opp.ortunities to mould J"rel,iped social-rn,elfare is typical in that all the features of the example This their society. and .,"* po*,ui and confliit struiture bet*'een rrational states and no'el is \{hat rn,orld-society plal'ers can be detected in it' are grorr'ing decisive is not that these transnational corporations in number and diversitv, but that, in the course of globalization, ottt: tlre' are placed in a positiott ttt itlorl off notiortnlsfntcsrl;intr::i nnotltr e. Lookecl at from outside, evervthing has rc'nlainecl as it rr'as. so Companies protltrce, rationalize, l-rire and fire, pal' tares' ard --:nder this do no.lotrger thev is that honever, point, o,.,.Tie cr,-rcial , u t c o t r t i n t r et c p l a v l s t a t e sb b V n a t i t l t r . rrules of the galirc c'leiined thus the old game nhile nullifying and redefining-those rules,.I: cepital' and labour of old game the of a qr-restion be to only app"enrs game state and unions. Foi v'hile orre pla'er continues to plar. the rt,ithin the frame$,ork of the nitional state, the other is ai:eadv rvithin the framework of n'orld societr'' playing ' Ii-, tlic rclationslrip betn,een the first ant-lthe second modernit\', r,r-itha rve are therefore no longer deaiirrg rt'ith a rule-governeclbut o.f po!::ics a rt'ith politics, oi as I hgvJput it eisert'here, rttle-clnngirtg 'politicsor a nrctnltolitics.This .is characterized by the fact that the new po\\'er game in the between national and transnational plavers'is. acted out i n d ustrial s t r u g g l e ' o f c l i s t r i b t r t i o n t h e f a m i l i a r r r r l e sa r r d c o l o u r s o f stiil rr't,r: and goverrrment utrions society. It is as if ernplovees, playing draughts, whiie tire transnational corporations had croved on'to ihess. What looks like a clratrghtsman nlav thus become a knight in tLre hands of a corporation, u'hich rnay the'n suCdenlv
deliv ver
r ttp ctreckma e ^ to r t rh l \u ,, il ^r-s - t!r. r-r.c .^ a n^d kl -^.:^---r

Whv and in what sense does elobalization force us to distingtrish betn'een a first and a secorrdage of modernity? The urrderst.tnding of society that characterized the first modernity has been aptly 'methodological described by A. D. Smith as nationalism': society and state were conceived, organized and experienced as coextensive. This presupposed the political definition and control of space by the state. The territorial state bgcame the 'container' of society. Or, to put it in another way, the/state's claim to exercise power ancl control was the foundation of society. This primacy of the national can and should be analysed in respect of the various basic rights, the education system, social policy, the party landscape, taxes, language, history, literature, transport, infrastructure, passport and frontier controls, and so on. National societies also generate and p."te.*ru in this way the quasi-essentialist identities of everyday life, whose self-evidence seerrrs to derive frorn such tautologicai forrnulations as: Germans liwe in Germanv. rapanese -di;5{1-]: in t;;il-;;;;;;"f.t.;:d;li:'J: -;'e..J Lt. 1 lnjEE5l.r-' -" t - co u p re o r t r i wi ar
ls seen

natior-ral

r-, - -

kirig.

ir\

oF

3tate

66

Dimensions, Coitlrouersies, Definitiotrc

7-rnrtsrtt'tti<trttrl-Cii'i/ -srrcicirr

67

longer be conceived as national or ethnic or as correspondjne to the pgfiiry of rich and po-91;it can only be understood is takin"g place within.world society. what people dream, how they would"like to be, their everyday utopias of hippiness - these ur" .,o longer tied to a particular geographical area and its cultural identitiei. Even urban rummagers live in and from the garbage of world society, and remain linked into the symbolic circuiti of global culture industries. In this sense, thb'collapse of the Eastern bloc was also manifestly a result of cultural globalization. The 'iron curtain' and the military counter-espionage service dissolved into nothingness in the television age. Television advertising, for example, which is often scorned- by cultural criticism in the west, chinged in an environment of shortage and regimentation into a fusJd promise of consumption and political freedom. (3) This becomes understarrdable .r-rly when one- clearly distinguishes two concepts of culture that are usually confused. The first conceptof culture (culture 1) r'ien'sculture as essentiailv territorial;it assumes that culturestemsfrom a learning-process that is, in the main, localized.This is culture in the senseo{a-culturc,tl-tat is, the culture of a societyor socialgroup. A notion that goesback to nineteenth-century romanticism and that has been eliborated in tn'entieth-centuryanthropology, in particular cultural relativism with the notion of culturesas a whole, a Gestalt, configuration. [.. .] A *'ider understanding of curtprre(culrure 2) views curture as a 'software'. general human This/notion has been implicit in theories of e'olution and diffusion, in which culfure is viewed as. in the main, a translocal leaming process. Culture 2 necessarily means cultures in tlrc pruraL rhese are conceived as a non-intggrated, non-separated' multiplicity without unit/, in the sense of what I have referred td as irrclusive distinctions.' These -:g understandinr,._?j:_.ot ^::$!-* 1, .+.-".-:.. incompatible: .ts:--'.ii.li"_^gf culture 2 finds culture. But exDres_ they do

'the 'a oi ;rlacerr'hichderives specificitv of place': calls globalsense of a distinct rrtixture the focus oi place is from the fact that each wider and more localsocialrelations'. The general'terminologv of cultural pluralism, multicultural society,intercultural relations,etc. does not clarifv rvhether it refers to culture 1 or culture 2. Thus, relationsamong cultures can be (in u'hich cultures retain their separateviewed irr a staticfashiorr (in rvhich cr'tltures interpeneor a fltrid fashior.r nessin interaction) trate).3 the distinction betlveen culture 1 and culture 2 may Irr other r,r'ords, further stone in the mosaic that distinguishes the first as a be'seen and secondmodernities 'glocaliza(4) Bauman refers to a central problern arising or'rt of tion': namely, that rich and Pocr r-Io longer sit at the same (clistributive) table oi the r.ratiorralstate. Why shor-rld u'inners froln globalization, if thev are ever troubled at all bv pangs of iorrscience, distribute their horn of plentv preciselv in the rich countries of Europe? Whv not promote democratic self-help organizations in Africa and South America? Just iikd povertv or profits, is stiil is a/so beconring gloLtal.Whereas the cltorTcrr contpassiort trapped in the framework of the national state, the bourgeois acts in i iosmopolitan manner - which neans that rvhen his democratic heart thro6s, his ;,ction no longer has to obev the imperatives of national loyalty. (5) The ambiguitv of globalizations in the plural includes the fact that, in a liind of build-up effect, suprarntionnl nnd sttbnntional come into being. lrgood example of this_is the Euroregitnnlisnrs pean Union. I-laving arise'nas a resPonseto r,r'orld-marketcompetiiion frorn the United States and Japan, the developing European institutional structure mainly appeared as an intemal market. The introduction of the euro, however, means the emergence not only of a common currency area but also of political-administrative Pressure to solve the electoraland other resulting problems. In this way,
the still largely separate nations and cultures - France, Germany, Spain. etc. - are being. broken up frorn \^/ittrin and iorced to join -r.&\-.. l@:jggs Wl:_. i-.=_p---i9-=ry -lain tridden is thus

68

Dimensions, Controaersies, Definitions

Ciuil Socictrl f ratrsrtntiorttl

69

T!:c di:!c:tic: cf [European] unification mean, for instance, that constituencies in Northern Ireland can appeal to the .European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on decisions of the British courts, or that Catalonia can outflank Madrid and Brittany outma+ noeuvre Paris by appealing to Brussels or by establishing links u,ith other.regions (for example, between Catalonia and the Ruhr area). Again there is an ongoing flow or cascade of globalization - regionalismo- sub-regionalism. Or [as R. W. Cox puts it], 'Globalization encourages macro-regionalism, which, in turn, encourages microregionalism. Micrci-regionalism in poor areas will be a means not only of affirming cultural identities but of claiming pay-offs at the macro-regional level for maintaining political stability and economic good behaviour. The issues of redistribution are thereby raised from the sovereign state level to the macro-regional level, while the manner in which redistributed wealth is used becomes decentralized to the micro-regicnal ievel.' What globalization means in structural terms, then, is tlrc itrcreaseitt tlre attailnblenrodcsof organizatiol: transnational, intemational, macro-regiorral,,,.natior-ral, nricro-rcgiorral, municipal, local. This ladder of administrative levels is be'ing crisscrossed bv furtctional rrti.ttorksof corporations, international organizations and non-governmental .organizations, as wetl as bt. professionals and computer Ll-.ers.* In what follows, the first (national) modernity ancl its basic assumptions r.r'ill be contrasted with the concept (the feature.s, questions and assumptions) of globnl ciail socicty. (a) What is the meaning of globalization from bclott? How do cosmopolitan initiatives become possible? (b) What are the action resources and power opportunities of a trartsnationnl ciuil society? (c) What does

gntv and diplorega rd for nationaisoverei a o*utij.'lll " ' P U l l C -t.",';l t r - i i't"", .. r !L^ -^^r L^^:^ ^-ih-i-l-" ^f {nreicm nol'
"manc norrns, of the host basic principles of foreign policy iorne the Moonies, and 1a,,ere goingbv t.e board,. Tomorrow it might be to bestow its seek \\'oLlld which tnen sorng gt$anization, nri'ate

unauthor;,,. r -^r-1:c:- 5":ch a:' CreeLpeai:e cotldticted its on'n global

weal' far-o.urs r;# ,i.';;"n1mon that the oil companvrvasbrought hot.t'et'er, Wu rh;tuii'O".f"ot, but bt' a mass citizens'bovcott' Greenpeace to its tnoir'';;;t Thc of a n'orldrn'idetelevision indictnrerrt' orgunize6'iu'",,.."ons clf shaking the political.svstenl' insteacl truth is g,^".)--.--,-r.teace,

,i,,r,"r! "t il.l'.;.u'''" :i,ll::l:."^::.:.::T,i:i:,:1:i.i,,.:l:;,ll:. ",.a. lll t n a rj y s t e q . r n m a n v r e s P e c t sp a r a l l e l s n ' l i a t h a p p e l l e c l

rt,hiclr t lavirrg h a t ] L ' e c rp C the GDIt t^,,- ;r l-rednln('clc.ll'tha tr ( ' r ' l l P e . l t c ieart.cl tht' of exterlt the exaggerating iuU.tilttrll t1t"i ?"",11' ",itn thc tir:-re ior strtrle underminctl This Sca. dur.u,,l,'') ,Lth sccpolitical the L-rurt arnl,o!r', sirinirrg cre.llLiiit)',.:tti.,,lir.ligtrt.ir-r -.'l rrl' [ i1 1 ' , at i , . rr " , r , . ] ' l . l l ' 1 , . n . * f o r f r -trt rr t ; ' r t r s s i b l t ' ' 1 a . c i d i . t ' c t p t r i r t i c si : s t r b P o l i t i c : g l . L r . r l TI.'it;;;.."'l]:1.'ir"tr"tn.f thost' r''ho artbetrr'eet-r aPPear Alli.lrrces t""n ou"."]l-"j'll.l"l-rguirr. '-r (rl'lc t] r\ cr t h c i o r r t r e rG c r Tlir-rs o t h c r . r r ' i t h c a c h rlot' rr\ Ily, i ' a l l Y i l r g ol capaLrle tht' Green;reace actior'1 rnarr C11nn.'ji,-r,. getn,ut Kohl sr'l|-rp61fgd pritlre tlritrister, Jirhl \4:rjor' I'olitical clt'. l l i ' l l l l s tt 6 r tlrc. llrrtish actitlns trticol ere.l or depltlveci ilr er-ert'c-lartnents \4.,r...-...,r.lorrl1'
tlle oll ina.-I"-.-. /Tl1is llleallt as nltlch, aitcr all'

against rorct.s ioirrc'-1 .,.I, u. iiiii'n;ti:t..,:;;'p_":::lj.::ti:1"-::;.'1'l''ers as tlrug addicts

d"ibl) ln the end' the statepornrer ptuctising'r':;:iiol'r ogainst,tlt".ii The illegitimateactionand its organizers' maqea coalition rr,ittithe breach extra-parliamentan' dEliberate, the state. th;:'J,l,i.itf""a triedto escape n'hichhad preciselv politics, lnvolved in di196t-action regulations and bodies official indirect, of tn norrnr.. r-^-.otr,ofk ecological iustice''The antitl rouel-,"^*,.1f-1]'lli"r"tr-admipistereci a scene change completed have to said be Sn"ff n-*ifia,.,lfir,-,fd national modernitv: scctlrrd the and first the between of rL^ \ r t c ' --^r:1i..; .
Lrtrrrr'-i h t'r r i zed a c to rs gou rn..,.,n'1 h e sPecta to r be nch es, n' h i l e.u n a u t J;; ; t " decided what u'ould be done on stage' " of the seconi ta"rnity n 't9 political .rot'"I',u' then' u'as not that David deieated Goliath' . Coliath, acting globally, banded together first Uut thjt"O]il.'ri,,, agalnst a u,orld corporatiorr and then.againsta national governn l e n t a n c l i i J p o r i . " . ' T h e r r o v e l t v n ' a s t h e r o u n d - t h e - g l o b ea l l i a n c e

globalizntion of biograplies rr;ean? How is a cosnrcpolitnn aisiort emerging? (d) What do cfoss-cultural tolerance and criticism mean, and what makes them possible?

Symbolically stagedmass boycotts:cosmopolitan initiatives and global subpolitics

In the summer of 1995 the modern hero for the cause, Greenpeace, succeeded in getting the oil multinational Shell to dispose of an old drilling platform on land, instead of in the North Atlantic. Then
this rnultinational action organization, of- atomic bomb testing. 1e-sumption. in order pub,licly to prewent France,s aciused d presicient President
tlai-s titte it

between
and

govern

.*i.l-p.iti.rnentarv
1-j.a_--i-a?:

m3!

par.liarnentarv -and *-: in a

forces,

citiz-ens

rrigtrer

s,nse lesitimate:

70

Dinrertsiotts, Controuersies, Definitiotts

Trartsrratiortal Citil Socicttl

7I

C)f cor.rrse,the anti-Shell alliance was morally dubious; to bc quite frank, it'r.t'asbased on hypocrisy. Helmut Kohl, for instarrce, by striking a symbolic attitude that cost him nothing, wus able to gloss over the fact that his policy acceptance of high speeds on Cerman motorways was polluting the air in Europe. Just beneath the surface, German Green nationalism and attitudes of superiority were doubtless struggling to gain a voice. Many Germans would like to have a kind of Green Greater Srvitzerland; they dream of a Germany that is the world's ecological conscience. But, the lessons of politics are different from those of morality. Preciseiy in this alliarrce of mutually exclusive L)L.rsuasions - from Chancellor Kohl to Greenpea.e uciit'ists, from iorsche fetishists to incendiaries - we can iee the nen, quality of the political. The activit.r of globalcorporations and national governments l-ras come under pressure froi'rr r.t'orld p'rublicopinion. Individrral and collective participation in nexuses of_g-lobal action is here tire remarkable and decisive factor. Citizuts ort' tliscooarirtg tlnt tlrt, rtct of Tntrclnsc cart nlzuaysnrd eaeryitlrcre ba n direct bollot-pnpar. The bovcott can thus join arrd conrbine active consllmer societt' u'ith direct democracy - on a world scale. This comes close to the utopia of a cosmopolitarr society n'hich Kant outlined two hurrdred yeu.s ugo in his Perpettnl iencc; he contrasted it with representative democracy, which he opposed as 'despotic'. It is a global nexus of responsibility in which individuals - and not only their representativeorganizations - can directly take part in political decisions.To be sure, this presupposes pr-rrchasingpower and excludes all those who do not have any. Here lies a further key division: individuals have not at all become directly active; their protest is symbolically mediated through the mass media. Man is a cl'rild lost in 'forests of symbols' (Baudelaire). Or, to put it differently, man has to rely uporr the symbolic politics of the media. This is true especially in the abstractness and ubiquity of destruction, which is what keeps world risk society going. Here a key politital significarrce attach-es to simplifying symbols which can be easily experienced. In these, nerwe strings. are touched and u ,".sL of alarm created. flJj:.:l .,-:fricn Ttrey are
syrnbols rnust.be produced, indeed
gpl-i-

llTiLgllt"

J'ff;:.+Ii1-99q...-

thre tense and horri ried

wtro is haster

forged,

in thc,

problen-rsand, on the other l-rand,make peopie capable of action? The latter should be all the more successful, the more straightforis the staged svmbol, the fen'er are the costs of ward and accessible the public protest action for indiyiduals, and the more easily each one can thereby unburden his or her on'n conscience. Simplicity means manv things. First, there is the question of transfirabitiitl. We are all environmental sinners: just as Shell 'ali of us' itch to ihrorv wanied to sink its oil platform in the sea, cola cans out of the car wiudon'. It is the evervtnan situation which makes the Shell case (accordirrg to the social construction) so easv to urrderstand - rvith the crucial differerrce, to be sure, that the greater the sirr, tlte n"roreenticing the proLrabilitVoi oiiicial acquit'Those at the top' are given the otttcry. ial. Second, there is the rrrornl go-ahead from goverlrmeuts and experts to sink a drillir-rgplatform 'lve belort", for the iull of oil residtrein thc i'kir-th Atlalrtic, h-hereas salvation of the u'orlci, are sui-,fr5ed to clivide el'erv tea bag in t h r e e a n d d i s p o s eo i e a c h p i e c e s e p a r a t e l v i n t h e p a p e r , s t r i n g o r Ktlhl sicled n'ith Creenleai birr. Thirt-i, the' pro/iticnlttltltttrttutistrr. against the testirrg of French ;rot but against Shell, pcace's action interests,but a market n'as trot otrl\' Shell's For it \\,eapons. ator.nic g.'tt.netli natiorral Po\\'er Lrtlker that n'as itrlolve'cl' Fourth, the To hit Sheil, one had onlv to iill availabilitv of sirl;.r/cnlterttntit't's. 'morallv good' petrol from one of its corrrpetitors'Fifth, f/rc up r.r,itl-r The bovcott gairred montentum from indtilganccs. of acttlogicttl sc'//irr.g of industrial societr',because it allon'ed a kind the bad corlscience of self-staged cgo fc absoltoto take place n'ithout anv costs to the individual. G l o b a l e c o l o g i c a ld a r r g c r s c r e a t e a h o r i z o l r o i m c a n i n g d o m i n a t e d b y a v o i d a n c e ,r e p u l s i o n a n d s a l v a t i o n , a m o r a l c l i m a t e t h a t srolvs more intense $.ith the size oi the perceiYed threat and irr il'lrich rrett rtctorsare'iotturl and frtlliticallv allocatt-d to the roles ol heroes ancl scttuudrels.Tctlerceive the ri-orl.-i.rs threatened n'ith ecological-industrial self-destruction is to make a universal drama tragedr' out di moralitv, religion, iurrdat'trentalisrn,...hopelessness, and tragicomedl, (alrva)'Sitrterrvovelr rvith t)reir opprosites:salvalil'reration).In this global stage production, it is tiorr, redernl'rtiorr, left open rthethtr the ecotromv rvill be tl're villain of the piece or errd trp as thc heroic savic.rrrr. the backgrourrd This is p-rreciselv
against rl'hich CreenLreace managed to take the' stage, rt'ith all the
cunrlirrla oi imrrotence-.Grecnpreace rnav Lre said

%-i:.l1l:;*

:-::..!:;.:::*:lii:..-,'r,'

s rrtr>r. r i.r

to Pl15L1g

a kind

rti

st ren g r. rr oi

72

Dinrertsiorts,Corrtrouersies,Definitiorts In a moment ';: i-yrricai.juiii',yjosef Stalin once asked, 'How manv divisions has the Pope?'The fact is that, in the eyes of decent humair opinion, moral challenges are nel)er answered by displays of force The day that Amnesty International takes possession of a machine gun, let alone an atom bomb, its ability to gain a hearing and influence events will be at an end. Institutions with bigger and bigger guhs have. in practice, less and less claim to speak on moral isdues with the small voice that carries conviction. Here lies the effectivenessof f onathan Swift's image of Lilliput. Stalin failed to see that the military trivialitl,of the Pope'sSwiss Guard increases hrs claim to a hearing, rather than undermining it; rvhile Amnestv Internationai's moral authority is that much greater, just because it is a Lilliputian institution. To this clay, the patterns of our lives are shaped politically b1, the actions of state ar,rthorit;,; r,et, r-norally.rulers of corltenlp()raly statcs are open to out:;ide rnoral criticism of kinds that have not beerr n'idely available since before 1550. Even the most forceful superpo!\'ers can no lor.rgerigrrore the fact. [. . .] Lilliputian organizations cannot compel immoral rulers to apologize on their knees, as Henrv II had to do; but thev do subject rulers rryho refuse to mend their ways to damaging embarrassment in the eyes of the n'orld. If the political image of Mociernitv n'as Leviathan, the moral standing of 'national' powers and superpowers will, for the ftrture, be capturet'l in the picture of Lemuel Culliver, waking from an unthinking sleep, to find himself tethered bv innumerable tiny bonds.'

nt iot rnl Cii'i/ Socir'ty 1'rnrtsrr

shc n'trltlti nt'rt iikt' io titr tr'itirtrtrl lrrtz-irrg altoKcn;'a, .rltStrrr$11 'S 1d r p l e 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 c s - ' 1iIs gethcr. 1, -,'Oirti.. slie is invited ttr local Pc1 'wii1

o" in old age looked after. Her n'ell-being .in,o,:t^Y In [enerallf 'is someone'in Kenva:shEhas a 'iamil),-tlere' ih" f"ci'1h;;;fee registered, she is a nobodY' In her i"arl^g,'*1,Jr"st-," is officially 'like a songbird'. orn'nw"orJs, spe lives there tP"::l,lTL:1 in Kenyawith rt'liom she.has.a Her lqqusintances lttttt 'togethelies.s' but thcv have sttlCo alsocomefronr Cernranv, is *'ho D?rris' a life lived letweerr differerrtplaccsand continerrts. KellaaUut (Muslim) i1 Asian is married to a fortv ys3p5 younger,. or there tr,"'t"upr-g;ing 6u.t to Germanr:to earn her rnonevhere the n'ith make w'el1 to ii and all it), sure i,,'h"r-u';;?;c iares,tosee n'ell fecls Eifel Slre in the mountains. o\\'lls slte lrouse r-.J c/arLlcn ts xrrd g.cring - rvliiclr tltatthc crrnring docsnot ntt:.rtt ',.r il.if,'.rf.S5, 'homelittle too mucl"rf'or her. As to ottr old lact)" ,-rot iu'5:;-, 'Tutzing' as be called faces,tu'o 'oices: it ma1, t*o ;;.ilJ-:)'i;, not leaston n'here or",f"nya'. Where it carriesher dePer-rcis ""ff hat'e been b'rck too long' sl,e 61r,-ul1sid1' continents life, n'hich spansplacesirr differerrt. lacty's r. i1-.'1,, ;i; dispersal? of rnanifestation bi;;^;hem-together, a disastroui rlav "t-,d iorced into this transtrational *,r, ti f, ;.1i. fot tftE has not becn life a split man)'are lead as.so n'ho rndirectly, ot iife - not ever"I is in ladv old The tirehappy'tu:]tl::,:t "o' Uu.uur" oitll"ir career. Kenvaor lor Kenva navi.,,li aecideeitherfor Tutzingand against

Place polygamy: towards globalization life

in personal

;;;"i: jl;;

To appreciatewhat globalizatiod*"un, when speit out in people's own lives, there is nothing as useful as a little illustration. A lady who is eighty-fouryearsof age,and who may thereforebe called old, lives in. . .? This is r,r'here the story begins.If the local register is to be believed,she has lived without a break for more than thirty years in Tutzing, on Lake Starnbergnear Munich. A typical caseof (geographical) immobility, one might say. But in fact our old lady flies at least three times a vear to Kenva for several weeks or months at a time (usuallv two rnonths in winter, three to four
weeks at Easter, and again in autumn).
In_Tutzing?-ln Ss*-la_..::=+e

geto_ marria r'" nr""iii"al plaiepbtygumv, glooarr ::l:::11 l:t :ri.,? to :i:#, is the qatervav this worlds: different U"fon";,

other, stii lot'tstlrcmbotlt' nr.ica6i.rjTutzing ipp"ot to exclucle.each

J'l''d oi. e polr' ptn.c i"i'i" g. shel iveso. xl "'.!..,?.'-t:'"tn

Where is she ,at home,?

r Hanabur

l(enya? Yes and no. In Kenya she has rnore friends jl.-*Jl-:= of Africans -in- a gense ' F e snetwork and idehce

1n oi biograpnr' --: o"u'.?*? life; it leadsto the globalization oPpositions tn'o"tldts the biographv-means.that of C[i"iirrti"n in h,r'es' theie but'also in the centreof pec4rle's or.rt ,r..;;:;;rly friends' oi arrdlamilies, at rvork, irr iirclcs n-,ar.ioges ;r;ili.dJal at the supermarketcheesecounter' in cirLma, the in ril;;l; ", makinq..l:::'^?"d t" eating the evenirigmeal,. listeuiirgto .musrc,, uttd rvill it a.e noieven al\'areol rt"^'e on nitiio.rgh peopledo iot 'glocal' tT.-::t-"1] mannerTo grasp in a n,o.e ut',d ol one :i centurr" "iirl'j'rlri" that recall rt'hble to a for ,i*." .i""ges, it is useful u'as ilization of conternpgrar)'.cir critics b1, made tfr"-."^ffiints are ever more tightlv enclosedin the cage r'rf their tt-,ot-p"opte
h hi rg llh r rll'y y
sP pe ec cria al lriz ze e od

li rt t l e e \ u ^,' o r llc dl. N ol , \' o ." ,v

rr tu *,,{e \ / e a llIi s u u,,--rlo de e lr rr-Y r l r ' i irn d

oru r ur J sE er lves

il.iiEEi.R'r-y.\=:.:1--_::i::_?3p-?:'..-"_:'=,:"--:.:iJ.ll::1pr^.i::,':,7

74

Dimensions,Controuersies, Definitions

I rertsrtnlrortLtl Cit,il -Socicirl

75

first rt'orlci, irole in the ozone layer, mad cow disease, pension reform, disaifeciion frorn political parties - arise in lives that have become inextricable from one another. The global does not lurk and threaten out there as the Great All-Ericompassing; .it noisily fills the innermost space of our own lives. More: it ionstitutes much of what is distincti'ely our own in our lives. our own life is the locus of the glocal. How is this possible? One's own life is no longer tied to a particular place; it is not a staid, settled life. It is a life 'on the road' (in a direciand transferred sense), a nomadic life, a life in car, aeroplane and train, on the t e l e p h o n e a n d I n t e r n e t , a t r a n s n a t i o n a ll i f e r n e d i a - s u p p o r t e da r r d media-stamped. These technologies are everyday ..reairs of bridging time and space: they create proximity over distances, and d i s t a n c e sr v i t h i n p r o x i m i t y - a b s e n c ea t t h e s a m e p l a c c . T o l i v e i u one place no longer means to live together, arrd livirrg togetlrer no ionger means living in the same place. The central figure of individual life is no longer the fl|neur but the answering-machine and mailbox: you are tl-rereand not there, nothhsrn'ering vet ansn,ering automaticalll,, sending and receiving ne\^,sthat is both temporallv and spatially mixed, technologically captured and stored from other parts of the n'orld. The multiple location or transnationality of individual biosraphies, the giobalization of people's lives, is a further .uuro., ,ihy nationai sovereignty is being undermineci and a nationally based sociology is becoming obsolete. The association of place wilh community or societv is breaking dorvn. The changing and choosing of place is the model for biographical glocalization.It should be stressed here that, in view of the opportunities and conflicts of world society, they'lranging and choosing of place do not always follow subjective decisions. A still fairly mild pressure to change locations comes from people's occupation oi career.

ttr placcmodemity is also the passage tronr prlace-rr'l()t1()1lal1lolrs p o l y g a r n o u st v a v s o i i i v i n g . Place polygamy may, as \\'c irave seen, Itlean nlall\' things. lt may be acted out u,ithin Bavaria betrt'een a Pel'soll'shtlnrc village crossing tretu'eetr and Oberammergatl, or it mav irivolve ccllrtir-rual cultures (aniong third-generation Germarr-Turkish vouth, ior example) or betn,een corrtinetrts (the Vietnamese in the former of tlre rvorld m.rv also L-'e GDR and nor,r'Beriin). The contir-terrts i r r t r r t c g l o b a l p r l a c e( L o n d o n . f o r e x experiencedand sufiered distinctiott:tcl clraiv sor.r.re ltecess.lrv ample). lt is tlrerefor-e ' C l o b a l i z a t i o no i b i o g r a p h r " r c f e r s r r o t t ( ) ' intl trf mtrltii t r s t a 1 1 \k ' t 'th r i c h i n v o l V e sc r o s s i n g p r l el o c a t i o n ,b u t o n l v t o t l i a t r r t t t l t i l o c n t i t $ , c l i g i o n s , c t t l t t li - e s ,s k i r r ' Vttrlds (rratitlrrsr t h c b < l r d e r sc l i s e p a r a t er rntlst or nla\colours, corrtinents, ctc.), arrcl ilhose opp-rositiorrs rrrll.cf rh a t I t r a n v l i v e s i r r r . r : 1 I o d g c i n a s i r r g l el i f e . F o r t h e .r r o t i o r . t vi g h c l e t n a t t t l :i s . r l e g c ' n ctlh a l p l a c e m e i r r d e s p a i r i n d i m p - , o s s i b lh trronogamists r.tseto shielcl themselve's irtlrl the irlrprosi:loIrsof p lace-polvg.rnrists. l f r , r ' ea r e t o u r r d e r s t a n d t l i e s o c i a l i i g t r r e o i a g l o b a l i z e t i o n o f itrvcrh'ctlin stretchorr tl.rcol-rfrositi()11s pcrsorral liie, rr'e tlrttst itlct-ts (.1tl'lotlg other ihirrgs, rcqtrires, irrrl Lretrt'ecndiifcrcrrt pl.rccs. This \ \ ' a \ : . \ 4 o b i l i : - . 'i r r t h t ' r l e \ \ ' i n a u n d e r s t o o d that mobilitv shotrldbe ( i a nril" cotrplr-' t r n i t a c t i n g l i v i n s o r o I a s i n g l e old sense nrobilitv (L-roints) i-,::rarchl' irr the soci.ll places tu'o betn'een individlrai) or or landscape- has been losirrg or changing its significarrce'i\'hat is c l i a n i n c l i | i d t r a l ' s c - " ' ' nl i f t ' , c o r n i n g t o t l ' r ef o r e i s t h e i r t r t c r . m o b i l i t v for which coming and eoing, being botlr here arrd there ac'oss f r o r r t i e r sa t t h e s a m e t i n r e , h a s b e c o n r e t h e t r o r m . l l t h i n * . T h u s , i t i s p o s s i b l c t o b e i m m o b i l c a c c r t r d i n gt o o i i i c i a l r e g i s t r a t i r , : s t a t i s tics, and vet to live a non-settled existence irr several Places at once. (This should be clearlt, distinguished from the orricrmo:ilitv oi as a house move, a change of iob, such exceptional occr'rrrencE d i v o r c e , f o r c e d f l i g h t , c n r i g r a t i o n , e t c . ) I r r n e r n r o b i l i t v i s n c - 'l o n g e r tl-re exception but tlre rule, trtlt something alien btrt sonething familiar, constantlv occurring in manl'diiferent iorms. One could 'iind one's say it has become second nature to keepr having to place', betrt'een differerrt places each u'ith their specia! social d e m a n d s . I n n e r m o b i l i t r - a n d m u l t i l o c a t i o r l - t r a n s n a t i o n e i .t r a n s continental, tran_sreligior-rs, transethnic, in biographical cross-seca1{ in the longitudinal section of life _ .ie i.",o sides of the lion same thingg*ot Inner. -r--.:-.-t:.-a is opposed pi'y=r--i to outer, --LrrrU motrility thus denotes the ii-. ,= necessar\_ dr desir_

76

Dirnusiorts, Corrtroaersies, Definitittrrs

Trarisrtotiortnl Cit,il Socicly

/r

abie to master evervciav rife between ciifferent r'orlds. This also expresses the limits of inner mobility, which are set .ot o,.,iv ur. tt-,e (financial) difficulties of sociaily coordinating u,la *urt".i;.; ;i"."_ d a y l i f e , b u t a l s o b y o l d a g e , i l l n e s s ,d i s a b i l i y , a n d s o ; ; . - ' - ' * , ' ' These different worlds are potentially present at a single place (by virtue of information, ionsumpiio.,, social, ..rttrirut'u.,a religious oppositions), dependent on the available torr..", t?-i.,io.mation, the variety of cross-cultural relations, migraticih, legislation pertaining to aliens, etc. In other words, the idea-that one lives in a single, self-enclosedplace can everywhere be seen to ue ratse.t Maarten Hajer, alluding to U. Hannerz, speaks of a ,transrratio_ nalization of place'. Transrrationalizatior-r establishes new,corrnections betr'eerrcultures, peopleand places, therebyalteringour everydayenr-ironment. N<lt orrly. does ii bring scarcely known products into o.,. supe.-ork"ts (such as ciabattaor pitta bread) or signsand symbols into our cities (Chineseand Japanese writing or Islamic -rri., fo, e*o*ple); Uui new groups and people(Africans,Bosnians, Croats,poles and'RLrs_ sians, as *'ell as Japanese a.d Americans) also become mare strongly present in those cities and for a time affect ho*, they are percei'ed by manv citizens.In the big cities, moreor-er,transnationalization 'isibly influencesthe new curture of the second moderfor example, in the form of Islamic disco music, culinary lily . . hybrids (so-calledcuisinesnuuagc), world music p".io.-o.,."r, or.'6 Euro-Asian,Afro-Europeanor Afro-Caribbean.hild."r,..

Multilocation - in relaii.,.i-rto tl-,e grar,C sociological uarratives does not therefore nrean either emancipation or non-emancipation 'cosmopolitan r-ision' or a anomie or non-anomie, an automatic indiscrirninateness or aiarmism. Nor doe-' new fundamentalism, (by equating Islam, fundamentalism and vic' it mean defamation What it does mean is something new, abou: lence, for example). curious, as one does about pert' become may be or which one things, in order to decipher its (r'iew of the) rvorld. There we encounter people rvith exotic-sour,Jing names, unfamiliar appearances,different hair arrd skin colours, u'irich all evt-rkein us associationsu'ith iaran'a-r'larrds and the Orierrt. Then ther suddenlv reply in Bavarian or Srvabian dialect, arrd it tttrrrs out that thev gren' r-rpin the Krer.rzbergdistrict of Berlin or in Duisburg. Irr short, thev turn our expectations right around: thet place our images of normalitv in question. As r.r'e r e a c ' il n a n o v e l o f K t r r e i s h i ' s : ' E v e r v o n el o o k s . r t v o u a n d thinks: u'hat a nice little Indian bo\', hotr' exoticl Horv excitingl \4Ihat tales of aunties and elephants u'e'll get to hear from !rirnl - until it transpires that the Indian Lrov is fronr the Lorrclousubttrb trf OrPington and has never even beelr on a visit to lndia. The rr'orltl tht-n seenrs \\:ho is n'hat? \\'htr is rr'hcr? to haye gone craz\'. Nothilg is as it see'ms. Similar stories can be told from Germanr'.' 'Well ncv,', Herr Kavanka. Stt vou're a private dc'tective li'.ierestin' name thai - Kavanka.' 'Not so much interesting as Turkish.' 'Ah!' The smile becornes evett srt'eeter,the el'e slits h.rrt'llr l.lrger tharr razor blades. 'Tr.rrkish. A Ttrrkish l'trivate tietective?So ttt,r\.tlrerc s ()ll('\)i evL-r\'thirrg. Arrd hon'cotlle vou s;re1l sttch i;otlcl Certtratr, ii I nr'rl Prcsume to ask?' 'Because I never learnt anr other language M)'Parerlts elied voung arrd I gren'up in a German familr'.' .'But you are Turkish I nrean...' 'l (J. Irave a German passLr(rrt,ii tlrat 1'rr.rts ).{rur nrir-rtl.1t rest.' l991)."' Ztrrich Ariotrni, Eitt Mtttttr,t'irr L4ttrtl,

tn thrs way, places become new opportunities for disco_ aspec ts of onesel f - To rwh a t ex rent :ent ,'""t|.rj:1,::r.Tg,::.,^p il.1.yl".

But when the conceptof place is itself ambiguous, *,hat does muli.ilocationor transnationaHty of one's own life"actually mean?If my own life is stretchedover several places, it ma' mean that it takes place in conmton or spaci: for exampie, in airports, .genernl hotels and restaurants which are everywhere rnore o, tu.i tn" sameand. thereforeplaceless, and which make the qrrestron-;who am I?' ultimately unanswerable. Or (just to take the opposite extreme) multilocation may mean that onb keeps falline i,i io,r" with and rnarrying what is different in praces, in their Fu."so.,a nrsrorles.

-=-*-ffi :*'-9,-"-i;.-:1-Ti-iE.;;T{-.{1.*"-#:{.i:.*:

On the possibility of inter-cultural critique

A cartoon Wo_rld witla Sho\\'S qlitterihc tlae

Span

ish

conquistadors =1Yru.G -t---:'S come

errtering the Nerr t<) ),()u., says th=. -.-d-*,-rh

a-_j r

Dinrensions,Controaersies, Definitions group of puzziea-iooking natives answer: 'But of course: what do 'yOu want tO knOr."?' It has often been described, to little enough effect, hor.r,c'e.ts then led and still lead to bloodbaths. But whit is funny about this scene? The com_edy comes from the mutual rnisundeistanding of the'encounter'. We-sternimperialism bristling with arms disguises its missionary zeal beneath the phrasemongering of 'cross-cultural dialogue'. The conqtrered natives naively misunderstand, and seek to represent tl-re situatiorl as one of proffercd dialogr-re, but tlrc-yare to be fattened like Christmas geese u'ith foreign certitucles and then slaughtered. The bitterness of the comedy lies in the fact that the observer knows ntore than the situation rbveals,and that tire cartoonist plavs n ' i t h t h a t k n o r . t ' l e d g eT . he onlooker is aware of wlrat reallv l;'es ahead. He knows what ravages and bloodbaths came intb tl-ie world through the blindness to strangers n'hich was built into those certainties of theirs.'lhe laughter dies au,ay amid the tragcdv of the situation - a tragedy that has jinxed the rvorld right down to the present da;'. Tragedy and comedy are the two sides of a cross'dialogue' culturai that has repeatedly failed. This being so, *e need to isk rvhether anything like cross-cr-rltural criticism is ever possible. Or, more naively: Hoiu r,r'ill it become possible? To mike sure we have got the question right, r,r,e shall first interrogate the classics of tolerance and misunderstanding (Nietzsche and Lessing), and then try to build some bri.lgei between the opposing camps of (postmodern) contextualism and (Enlightenment) universalism.

'f

r0| tst tnt ion(tl Cii,il Socit'irr

'That wisdom full of prnnks'

There is certainly the postmodern Nietzsche, who merrily shatters certainties by exposing the egoistical content of morality, and who preaches immoralism, irresponsibility and self-interest. But there is also the ironical Enlightenment Nieizsch'e, perhaps even the stilrto-be-discovered founder of one such Enliehlenment. And he knew of the rnrisdorn of laughter, which ne c-attea 'that wisdom full of pr_anks': 'the
- pranks'. rr joyful kind of seriousness
or -cohPas

and

that

wisdom

full

of

t (l ) C r e a t et h e s p a c e is eyidentlv n()t a1 srlf in itseli; it !5 5rrnprg5cc p r o c e s so f c r o s s - c t r l t u r a l ior rejoicing .rtrd iarri'hi1rg t o g e t l - r e irn a ( a n d ' c r o s s - t r u t l i ' )d i a l o g u e - t h r o u g h o t h c r s r v h o s em a s k s o n e h : s pulled on, through the masks one has oneself become and sees rvith the eyes of others, and so on. Thus, the globality that Nietzsche sees before his eyes does not suddenly arise all at once, but includes centuries of living with arrd against one another. But 'glocal' living in Nietzsche's ironical vision? n'hat is tlre morality of I t i s e a s i e rt o s a v u , l r a t i t i s r l o h I t i s n e i t h e r a m o r a l t a b u l nr n s an o r cctnventionan l r o r a l i t r , .l t a s s u m e st h a t t h c a b s o l u t i s t m o r a l i t i e s o f separate r.r'orldsu'ill be broken up - not so that there should be notl-ring,br,rtso that there is space ior a simuitaneolls reduction and 'Hence a moralih' of expansion of moral standards and demands. t e s t i u go , f g i i ' i r r go r r e s e l fa g o a l . " ' 'That u,isdom iull of pranks', simpliiied and methodicaiiv On the aplrlied, is for Nietzsclre expressccliir a tn'oiold dr:ttrnrclrc. tt"iidenls:indiorre lrand, he makes the case ior air indii'itlunlizntiorr I, n sd .ividualizatu v i d u a l s b e c o m el e g i s l a t o r s b , ut only oi tlrt'trtsalte thus accomplishes, in the realm of moralitl', the sreatest possi:ie redr,rction of standards.Thel'are valid for rne, onlv ior me. Moralin' a n d o r r / ys e l f - l e g i s l a t i o r . t h u s b e c o m e sp o s s i b l ea s s e l f - l e g i s l a t i o n t rinciple of iet T h i s d o e s r r o to ; r g nt h e d o o r u ' i d c t o t h e r e ' l a t i v i s p e v e r y o n e d o a s t h e v p l e a s e ' . N i e t z s e h r t ' si n t e n t i o n i s q u i t e - . r e opposite: for he senses that tolerance rvhich remains n'ithin its own moral certaintv is never more than a clntterirtg tolerance, j1e 'r,r'e have come to speak n'ith t'ou of Goci, civilizatt-rn tolerance of and truth' in that conquistador balloon. Tolerance must be ra.ircally conceived and practised in tu'o directions at once: reductr.rn of one's o\\'n so\rereign moral territort, in order to seek crcscultural dialogue n'ith other and others' truths. The individualization of moralitr', then, does not spring froin any egoistical motive. Ratircr, it opens up the opportunity foi a moraiity of tolerance. This makes possible not oniv dialosue .g/o&a/ 'liybrid' such as cross-culttrral criticism. Self-legislation. rn but a thi3 double sense of limitation and expan5ion, makes people cap able of criticism, capable of conflict. For Nietzsche, self-limitation opens our eves to legislation for ourselves alone, perhaps freed of the circr,rlaritvof enern)'-ima:es. It rneans that contact n'itl-rthe certainties of others can take place rn
an experime.tal
to

sphere
of

of
how

allswer

experierrce

tlae question-

Iiil:=:=3Spriricar;on

arrd actiorr. \ietzsche's criticisrn i-olil*rr s possi'ole be I*;;=:;., .. r-ir_...=

cross-c.rttrral

it'ft/ ;;it iottal C it' il -St't. 7 v0 1151

B0

Definitiorts Controaersies, Dinwtsiotts.

carr togcther oPct'l us up arrd legislationnri,i self-questioning of internationallife" us for the challenges stienethen "";;i? Ieads to intolerance'ethle'gisi;iion without self:que.stioning witlo,ut self-legislanocentrism,egocentrism;and'self-questioning of the narrowness face in tlon leads to ieakening and capitulation of the world. ThiscontradictionisresolvedinwhatNietzschecalls,amorality of-testi,rg,ofgiaingoneselfagoal''Theindividualizatio nofideals in this way enlai[es the terriiory of morality' beca.use -*"t"f ieducesi,rrl as an laws oT others can bL experierrcedand desired it 'We are n'e those " [" '] want to become of one'sown life' ettrichntent give rn'ho. - h;;"" beings who are new, urrique'.,incomparable' rs The counter-question themselves''13 who create law"s, themselves to slrlv 13$15 give who to hand What happens if those ;;;Ji"Ay headsin? one another's bash themselves InmanyresPects,asimilarans\^/ercanbefoundinLessing'r'r'l-ro dealsrn,iththequestionofmuttrallyext]usivecertainties,especiallv lt alreadystartsfrom the premissthat thaWise' ln nL pfuv Narlinrr 'wisdom' of Natiran the Wise tni"ny consistsin,a fractured the as to all pompous reiationshipto his own suPpo-sed .wisdom' peoplf Utit-tato the r'r'orld' When Sultan idealisms which make 'You are called Natharr the Wise?" he ansn'ers ;;i;Ji" asks him: 'No.' And on the Suitan'sretort: 'By yourself' Oh no' but b;' the 'Maybe;the people''Then follows a discussion people,'heallorn's:

' 'f1r ' ' o t ' / i " ' r \ c t l l " " , ' j l ) i t r d ' q ( ' r n c : ' ' i n , i t n e s s ;I ' , r , i l lh e a r h i r r l : r . r - r ' i r e ' l c l i l r g( ) t I l - l L l l u s s e a t .T h i n k y t l t r t h i s c h a i r / l s s c t f t l r "'til t.rrutuallvexclrtsiYc ce:,-,"leJrity of choosing betrt'cctr-tl.re religions is gi'en a M'slirn a.d tainties of the cr-,ristlan, Jeivish not but also two' The iudge does paradoxical soiution'' no'lu ut utt' for a c t a n d suppliarlts to think give a ruling: r',".oii'^o't the criterion a gii.es the truth-seekers themserves.At the ,""." ,i*", he judgement' the onll' ttiltit P:3:'bl" to take on their ,^'"y''ni-ttlrJi'lf rio' Activitr'' 'clectittt; it irr tltc ftLits..if iuhnt tltt't1 proof of their rvill itrcrease the number "i iorrflict, strife and itt"t'ittg ntte'sii - as in to ti-re trr'rtl-r'Here too ,i*t t, t'"' orrll' thos'e rvhic"h poirrt rtit'rlran,n. bot. to deiuse i:e Nietzscl-re_ the claiil io ir.,ir.t is :f cltcfor crtat:"< t r p r g lL l l[a l ' t ' t i ' ' t t i c : ' r r t ' /t r ) r r ' o r i d o f c o r r t r a c l i c t o ' jtt" .rctivitr. . : - ! r -- , . . a , "'!i,,-,-';i' is trl drarr .r c-listi.cti.rrthat catr:-r: 3115..rr.rr prtrt,l_essirrr,5 b e u , r i t t e t - r t o t . , l o . g e . ' t l r e t l i s t i r r c i i t l r - r b e i r i . e1111' e t r f;i1]1g1'5 .tl'iitiltt ttandll,i,::. 1rr"'; is,to p()sst'jr Certai.tv, i,r ttre ternrs ui tt-t" pr'rrablc' n'hich ctf the three ritrgs :s is the tt'-tcettnittri aL-rotrt .inj, ,,.ia1-t ,gelrr-tirre.,.tt-.isu,.,.e,toirrtroftrtrtl.risir.rer.tlcabie.lrlcertairrtr,-:.. c l t l t r b tl i r . e sa r r t - il s p e r l r ; . : ' d o u b t i a I l s a l r , a r ' .r " . t ' " t r . . , ,L - l t . c o t r t r a s t , in - comttratrcl tire qtralitv oi L'eing eln!!.i"1 itl" ring irr the parable beston's bt'ing true T. L.ceslrecia--'' roved.Trutrr must earrrits qualitr,oi eves) becon''ej peop-ris't other in loved' (recognition of o'-'u'' actioris pon'er of :re irative ihe ancl,otlrers the means of p,ot'i'ii i" """t"rf actii.itv $'hich n''usi doubt- about tire. truth,release il;.';;;;;s' io,r oneself' Ilot having sor:''epro\re itself. lt is thinking ol.d..g:ing and iashions ne\\' spaces' *ni.il oPens up p"ossibilities init

'wise'by thepeop.le catl^ed or ueing 5iif," i"ur"r, nono,,,

Nathan is an early'pragmatToday, perhaps,we r'r'ouidsi1 th-a-t wants to see' feel and l-rold He ist' in matters of belief and truih' sit so proudly on the lips' often what follows from if," -o3at that 'We have come to ,p"ut tiltn you of God' civilization and truth'' was 'Of course: what do you *otti to know?' That moral claptrap irony' of one was it to attitude,eputsiueto Nathan,whose startling At first Nathan suspectsan ambush in the Sultan's ,tell me as to a friend, / What faith, what law, have ouestion: or y;; ;;i'' i. gair' time, he tqlls the famous nalfte #,;;;i; escaPe' an a.s not as a reply byt in" .i"g, i"ni.n is thus c-onceived election' It always Passes symbolizes parable the i., ?i.,g The son - until one father, beloved down from the fatlier to his most
rlngs who loves and esteems all his three sons alike, has two more made of just the sarne beauty and walue-so- t.hlt he uzill not have to
disaDDoint
< rrij Eu.

"'ili;;';i;;;;i'd;

i";l is;, g",'l'".fare$, " tivetlranirotric,onefirrditli.eadr'icethatrrottohar.e certaintv\\.i:*i and their^truths' Lessirrgtoo combine: people over to that there are more than "ltf;^;""Ce the maxim ot sett-limitufiott accePtance lr'ith a firm attachment to the one contradictory iiuths or realities anC In other''n'ords' r'rnir-ersalist rins as token of ^"ftif"f" "f"ction' trutlt for the that fslrr u'u 'o intertwi'red ;:,t:,ff';;i;;i"' valuable actiou' socially of precondition the becomes isnr Cont ex t ual un it'ersal
Nlietzsche and Lessing employ different, eYen raclicallrdifferent,

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82

Dimensiorts,Controaersies, Definitiorrs 'l'lie

Trnnsnational Ciuil Socictlt

83

prepared - as \\'e would sav today - to give up either universalist principles or relativist principles. Universalism has the disadvar-rtage that one's own standpoint is thrust upon others,' but the advantage that others are involved and taken seriously. It is impor= tant to distinguish between a universalist and a totalizing (or, in the extreme, totalitarian) standpoint. Nietzsche understands that a universalist standpoint is perfecfly compatible with self-limiting selflegislation, and he also, like Lessing,nknows about the distinction betn'een truth and certainty. Neither can be said of totalizing terrdencies, 1t',1a'lricha historically murky picture of one's ou'n moralitl, becomes tire yardstick for everyone. On the other hand, relativism and cotttextunlthinking are irrc-lisantl pensable, because they sharpen our reslrcct for cultural differencc make a change of perspective both attractive and necessary. Faced r,r'ith the choice bet',r'eenuniversalism and contextualisnr ( r e l a t i v i : ; m ) ,b o t h N i e t z s c i r c a n d l - c s : ; i n gr c j c c t t h c i l i t h e r - O r a n t l u'ould like to take r-rp-r look for n'hat I call inclr-rsivedistinctions-.-J tlris struggle for arr and - for a combination oi universalism nrtri contextualism (relativism) - and to carry it further bv applying the distinction to itself. tlaclc up.r tlf iotrr ficlcls: tutir,crsrtlisl Wlrat we har,e, theu, is a ti.rlrlc (UU), tuiuersalistcontexttralism or relativism (UC), corruniaersalism (CU), and contextualcontertualistn or relativism textual wiuersalism (CC). Since the fourth position is very similar in conterrt to the third, the following account will only elucidate (with shafts of light) the first three positions. The first tn'o positions, UU and UC, have totnlizirtg features in varying degrees. This is true, for instance, of the old Enlightenment, which spoke cf nrcn {or in German, of gender-neutral Menschen), u'hen what it meant were uhite males zttitlt n liglt Even the claims of scientists that their methods Ieuel of educatiort. can express the one true nature or reality have become ridicuIous. In another rvay, however, this is also true of totolizing cotrtt'xtrtalism (or relatiuism).With quite different argdments, but with similar results, a change of perspective is rejected on tl're simple
grounds that it is impossible. For if everything is relative (let us return here to.'r earlier e-xarnple), the conquerors ha'e their poir-rt
of view and ttre conouered nglsi-t*r hawl theirs; --.ii-..-:i--_---li.o the ia-rtoonist observirig thc ha\-e points of *ier' ot

uniirterr'.iedironv oi-the tlrcommerrsuralriiitrlthesis is that it is the spittiirg irnage of u., ,.rrr,rtiaiisfvievr' Uf iire rr'orlo' it leads (astray) to a fostm6derr"rquasi-esse.tialism, *'hicl is like tire ge.they uine article in insisting thit things.just have to be accepted as are. Perhaps it is'useful, therefore, to think not onlv of a self-limitaof tion of one's own moral principles, but also of a self-limitation and contextualism In the end, absolutized one,s own relnti-oism. absolutized universalism are simiiarly blind to the truths t-rfothers' The one is blocked bv the enemv-image inherent in its L-\wncerirnpossibilit)' oi ever Llrlderstalldtairrty, the other bv the supp'rosecl i n g a n o t h c r ' ss t a n d P o i l r t . U n i v e r s a l i s tc o n t e x t u a l i s m( r e l a t i v i s l t r )i s a f a n c r ' \ \ ' a v t r r s a v i n g t\f Perper t o t t - i r t t c r . f t , r eH r re cr ce . p r e r ' . r i l st h e p e r p e t u . i l ( l r o r r - ) p e a c e in peace is others, leave to atrd left, be to lvisir A relativism. tual betrr'eelt cltltltres c.'.tl never lr,rstifiedbV argtring that the trenches 'be that tlialogtre tltrll' cver reilects Lrackolrc's tlrr'tt certattlcrossc.'l', ties.Admittedlv that'is a polemical n'av oi putting it ii r:rai'also i r r i t s r ' , ' s : t i i st,h t ' B t r t t v r O r r gs c , f i r a s n r o t i v c s a r c C ( ) 1 1 C c r r 1 e c 1 . L-re .l t() .111 c-lr.lrvtl of itrCtlrntlenSurabilitvc()n-les frrit)ri Lract cOrrjeCtr-rie CC t ltlr t t t r C S , . r t r tA ] r r . l S s t ' l ' t i \ ) ltl r i t h t oi rrorr-irrter[CretrCt'betu'e in p-rcr=pg611t'*. impossibility of dialogueor Oi atrl,kirrtl tli ch;.rnge .-riiirmation the a'sPect: irnportarrt the is It is preciselV this rr,6ich rTlatter oi a as .1ncl el'ror, trial .t)iflrolrl oi exch.rsivestanclpoirrts to sPeak, so itseli, is to cxpericnce, reierel'lcc prirrciple, u,ith rrrt from aside turning this take to like $'ould I anti-contextualist. one a cottnter-PL)siiioll, formulate to opporturritV an aS experience Lte ihought Irrar it Ftlr rrrriz,t'rsnli-strt. coirtc.rtirttl be called nray *,l'-,i.L of and deyeloped preciselv as a mirror image' Contextual universalism starts from the opposite case namelr"

84

Dimensions, Controaersies, Definitions

'Trdrtsnntittttttl Cioil Society

85

worlds. There is the riotous profusion of a globally disarticuiatc,d g?il:"t, in the iace of which a retreat ii-ito norr-dialogue appears totlLuc. since a non-interferencepact is ruled out, an acceptancebf glocal living comes into the picture. In this perspective, the false jJys of . incommensurability as illusory escapes from the [rip of ippear cross-cultural misunderstanding into which the world has failen. What is up for debate is the how, not the whether, of mutual interference and conflicting forms of involvement. It is possible to coFnterpose the two principles n,ithout any illusion, indeed with the sceptical undertone rigntly expressed in the incommensurability thesii. Absolute contextualiim insists: Just leave me alone! - not because any disturbance is forbidden, but because it is anyway excluded by the gulf of incomparability. By corrtrast, c o n t e x t u a l u n i v e r s a l i s mm a i n t a i n s t h a t t h c r e i s n o e s c a p e from the urrrest of mutual interference bctween exclusi'e certainties. To what extent can there be perspectival change, dialogtre, talking at cross-purposes,laughter and con-flicts?To rt'hat extent are these possible and necessary,or meaningless and absurd, or all of these things at once? I can know the answer to this question only ofter I have taken the relevant step. The essentiil difference betn'een the two principles, therefore, is not that the first denies any through-route r.r'hile the second affirms it, but that the first rules it out without even trying, while the second wrestles with the unavoidable experience of a test. (\Alhatever the point of view, both may look, or become, decidedly odd.) In the rriew of contextual universalism, then, incommensurability signifies neither pre-established ignorance; nor the self-righteotLsness that is a paradoxical result of absolutized relativism; nor the presumed certainty, without antftrial or experience, ihat an exchange of_perspectives and arguments would be meaningless. Absolute relativism means that I do not have to open my sanctuary to anyone else, or expose myseif to their criticism. For contextuai universalism, the question is: $ow canl learn to lauglt at the objects in my own sanctuary, while passing through the sanctuaries of others? The first attempt at inclusive distinction cornes down to a direct integration of the contextual into the concept of the universal. This makes invalid the alternative: either a single universalism or no universalism. But the possibility arises that there are ,ly uni'ersalisrn-.and your universalisrn, universalisms _ /Iurat uni_ T..y wersalismwersalism. Once Once t h e absolutist the absolutist clairis clairis
down. it can be seen tt\at tfris does -ta o f -^i.....ti.* rrnivprqaticof ta-_no sacre.i --^ L_^r_^-^ ;;; ;;;.. objects at aII

but (as in Nietzsche's thougirt) seli-limitatiorr to rrrrT sacredslrjccts which raises in tur, the question of the trniversaiisl'rr oi ollrcls..An example may ser\/e to clarifv ti.ls. Humarr rights shor"rld not be brotrght under the principle of universalist universalism: in other words, they do not have to apply everywhere on earth in the fcirm in u,hich they n'ere inaented in the West, noi is it true that orrl,r7 the West asserts and defends rights that are inalienable for all men and women. It is well known that the idea of"human rights can also be found in other cultures, traditions and religions, n,here tireir significance ma\: sometimes complement, sometimes subtract from the corlcept as understood -even in tlie lVest. Different ucrsionsoi hurnan rights exist in the various parts of Europe. In the Scandinavian countries, ior example, economic rights are countec-lamong basic rights, ivhereas in the post-communist countries of Central and EasterrrEurope civil arrd political rights are often highlv valued bv the population but not by thc goverrrment. Demarrcls originating ir-rother regions of the rvorld poir-rtto yet another understandine of rights. Thrrs, there is an A.fricnrtChnrteron Htnrtattntrtl Peoples' Rlg/rts. rlhat hasbeenconsitlered This reflects a speciiicallv Africanconcept of human rights, cleveloped fronr ihe norms of traclitional Airican and basedupon t\\'o important principles- ccmmunitarsocieties ianism, which rejectsthe individualism of the ivesternmodel, and decision-makingthrough consensual procedures,wirich obviatesthe need for competitiveelections. These principles are centralto claims bevond Africa.r" of cultural reiativismand have relevance Curiosity about other conceptions and traditions of human rights does not, as universalist universalism fears, lead to abandon'Onlv no\^,',\^Iemight sav, is rnent of the idea of equai rights for all. the competition beginning betrr'een cultr-tres,nations, states and religions, to decide rt'hich coitceptions of human rights are most 'dialogue' lrclpfulto human beings. And abolrt this, jinxed though it n r a v L r e ;i s a l s o b e g i n n i r r g . What is coming to an end is the great siience oi the various priests of universalism, on their heights of self-righteousness.To assert no more than one's oivn universalism is not necessarilv to u s t a s t h e v a r e ; i t d o e s r . r o te n t a i l a l e a v e o t h e r r - r n i v e r s a l i s n rjs mutr-rall-rarrds-off agreenrerrt.on the corrtran': clnlv a rcrrtrnciation
o f c l a i r n s t h a t n r y v e r s i < > no r ' I r u r n . r n r i g h t s i s i h . , , r r i l r . ( , l r r , c n < r b l c s l t
[o corltencl for waliditl, alongside trthcr I,crsiotrs-

E6

L)i///('ilsrr)r /s l. C o,r r i n r l c r . s i , , -) ri.' l l i r l l l o r r s

tr Corrtt'>lttra lliiversi-rlism ir er, t h e n a n l e c l tloes r-roo t lrligc a1r\'()11 s o n r c u r i s g r r i t i c dr c l a t i v i s r . n t , o e c c e P t h u r . n t r r r i g l - r t s. i o l a t i o n s t n a n r l c ( ) u l t i n c s . i i L r tr l o r t i r t c s i i s a l l c t i ( ) r other cultr-rrcs in , t.asionor fronr per.ecution, for other authoritir.s- to pr()tect rtrirrolitir-.s nr,trt rigirt>. and rthat e x a m p l e . I t a s k s : \ { h a t c o r r c c p t i o n so l h L r hr"rman rights groups, are there in the cor-rntris5rr'here hr-tman rights ar6 beirrg grossiv violated? Hou' do //rcy jtrtlge n'hat is i r a p ; r e r r i n gi n t h e i r c o u n t r \ ' , i r o n r t h e i r f r o i n t o f v i c r r ' a n c - ln ' i : : . t l r c i r k n o r r ' l e d g et r I I r t t n r a t rr i g l r t : ? . { t r . l I t t r t r ' t i t r t l r c t : i t r t e r f . v s i . l t i o n s r c l a t e t o o t r r ( n r 1 ' )h r ' p o t h e s c sa b o r t t h u t t t i t t t r i g i r : s n ' h i c h a : , : ( irrlrcc l r . t r i i rirtg r t h e c t t t r n t r t ' i nr l r r c s t i c t r r ) ? r,rniversallr,apPlicaL , r ' e r s i r l r -. i 'j B u t r e v e r s i r l r t t o a c t t r r t e x t u a l( o t t r , t l r , , \ \ e s t e r r t u r r i v c r s a ll r r r n r a r r i g l r t s i s r r o t b t . r r r v n r c a r t st . t i ' . : a r l o L r n t : . ' of i:'.c t\\'cntic:.l .n eforc tht Lrcsiialitit's n r t l r a l - p o l i t i c a lc . r r . i t r - r l . r t r o p r c s L i p p ( ) 5 1i't:r t t r ' l c r t t r . , 'j r r c r r t r i l : t : . c e n t r r l i , .l n d e e d , i t a c t L r a l l v . r t r d h r . t t t r a tr t i g h t : i i o l a t i o t r si l r ( \ : . : t r c L l l t L t : . . : clvcr hunran rigl-rts alrrl c<lr,rntrics. C o r . r t e x t u au l n i v e . r s a l i s mi r l p l i e s t h a t t h e t l . r i n g sr r ' g h o l t ' l n r r " : : lo criticisn'r h v o t h er s . T h e - . . ; . . ' : . t ' {( r) ' / / r . '- s a c r e r ln r u s t b e o p e r r e c t n tlrccatrsc , .n c l i i r s : . : t l t c i s rn t rr u s tb e ' c o r l n . r i t t e id oi univcrsalisn'a all rt'ith regard to orreself.To lrsc the l.rngr,ragt: nf Lc'ss:ng,the stt: f r o r r rr t i ' l n i r r l r l p h i l o s o P h i c a l ,n r o r . r l. r r . d p o l i t i c a . t o l r r t t l t- a t t r r r c e m r . r s tb e c o l l s c i o u s l v t a k e r r i n t h e t i e l d o i u r r i v e r s e i i s m . l n i - - urriversalisnis,per[3p5 heartfelt lau::.imaginative n'orld ()f n1ar1\' ter rt'ill one dav ring out at the foolish huntan presunptuousn$: of universalcertaintr'.