Political Community, Identity and Cosmopolitan Place

Abstract

Theoretical discussions of community, identity and democracy rarely make explicit reference to the role of place. When place is discussed it is usually characterized as related to particularistic concerns of local community and is described as a mere setting for human actions. This study explores a more complex, relational concept of place and its potential role in theoretical debate about political community. The example of the European Union is used to illustrate the connection between ideal geographies and conceptions of community. Three competing models of EU political community are discussed: the market, the civic and the cultural pluralist. Each has associated with it a differing spatial logic. This example leads to a consideration of a more cosmopolitan conception of place that moves from the concrete and the particular toward the general and the universal.