Plenary speakers: Ash Amin, Gerard Delanty, Eleonore Kofman, Ben Rosamond, Paul Statham, Nick Stevenson.

Other participants include: Barrie Axford, Daniele Archibugi, Larry Backer, Robert Fine, Andrew Geddes, Peter A. Kraus, Luke Martell, Maurice Roche.

In studies of the EU, discussion of cosmopolitanism is usually limited to questions of democracy and citizenship. In recent times, there has been a wider interest in cosmopolitanism in relation to civil society, the public sphere, EU polity, European identity, migration, transnational space, and multiculturalism. Indeed, cosmopolitanism is becoming a key concept for understanding social and political transformation in the contemporary context, offering an alternative way of conceptualizing community and belonging that does not rely upon the primacy of the nation-state.

The conference aims to promote greater interdisciplinary in EU studies and to generate a dialogue between EU studies and European studies. To this end the conference will explore the key themes around which the “cosmopolitan agenda” in European studies is coalescing: Europeanization as a designation for the transformation of contemporary Europe; the complex relationship between globalization and the EU; the democratic potential of political contestation and claims-making in the “knowledge society”; and the cosmopolitan dimension to the self-identity of Europeans.

Main conference themes:
* Globalization: European experiences
* Rethinking Europe: Networks, territory, society
* Cosmopolitanism and cultural identity
* Citizenship and Democracy