Not just visitors: Cosmopolitanism, hospitality, and refugees

Recent philosophers, political scientists and cultural theorists have suggested that the concept of cosmopolitanism is useful to theorize an ideal relationship between different nations, and to confront the problems faced by asylum-seekers and refugees. Here, La Caze discusses Immanuel Kant's view of cosmopolitanism which occurs in the context of his teleological philosophy of history and his views on politics.

Disability's affect: Or, refugees, communication and community

Cultural theorists have given much attention recently to the notion of 'affect', yet such discussions have not seriously, if at all, raised the question of disability. However we would suggest that disability has very strong relationships with affect. In this paper we argue for the importance of rethinking affect and communication from the perspective of a critical, socio-political account of disability. To illustrate this, we look at affect and disability in two important cases of refugees in Australia.