European inventory of
societal values of culture

Delanty - Cultural diversity, democracy and the prospects of cosmopolitanism

Delanty, G. (2011). Cultural diversity, democracy and the prospects of cosmopolitanism: A theory of cultural encounters. The British Journal of Sociology, 62(4): 633–656.

The paper presents a typology of cultural encounters and explores the major cultural trends that arise from these encounters. Such a sociological approach provides a broad context for discussing questions about cultural change and the potential of cosmopolitanism. The author claims that the most appropriate way of theorizing cultural diversity is to situate it in the context of a broader relational theory of culture. Such a relational conception of culture places emphasis on the relations between social actors and the processes by which some of these relations generate enduring cultural regularities and forms. This has important implications for political community and especially for cosmopolitanism.