Toward a Cosmopolitan Ethics of Mobility

This book proposes a cosmopolitan ethics that calls for analyzing how economic and political structures limit opportunities for different groups, distinguished by gender, race, and class. The author explores the implications of criticisms from the social sciences of Eurocentrism and of methodological nationalism for normative theories of mobility. These criticisms lend support to a cosmopolitan social science that rejects a principled distinction between international mobility and mobility within states and cities. This work has interdisciplinary appeal, integrating the social sciences, political philosophy, and political theory.

“Sager’s book is insightful, clear, and consistent in its central critique. It deserves attention … for its clarity in pointing out alternative perspectives for theorizing about migration and mobility.” (Daniel Dzah, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 54, 2020)

“Dr Miao Han’s book: Central Bank and the Financial Crisis is a timely work to examine central banks’ legal frameworks, crisis management tools, and latest institutional reforms. … the book offers valuable suggestions for policy-makers in the process of reforming monetary authorities and financial supervisory regimes. It also appeals to scholars from a variety of backgrounds in law, business, finance, political economy and public policy, as well as university lecturers who teach banking law and financial regulation.” (Lerong Lu, EuCML Journal of European Consumer and Market Law, Vol. 3, 2018)

“Alex Sager exposes how deeply political philosophy's engagement with migration and human mobility is saturated with nationalist assumptions and how this weakness extends even to work written from a cosmopolitan stance. Drawing on a multidisciplinary literature, he shows how state practices of bordering and exclusion go beyond the regulation of relations between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ and reproduce deep inequalities within cities and states. This engagingly written book is essential reading for political philosophers and theorists of migration who want to reflect on the ethical implications of their own research.” (Chris Bertram, Professor of Social and Political Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol)

“A great value of philosophy is that it brings us to examine basic assumptions, which often are hidden and naturalized.  This clear and energetic book does just that. Sager questions our nation-state framework, and by doing this he brings up amuch wider range of mobile people, inside national borders as well as outside, rich as well as poor, white as well as colored. His thoughtful review provides important ethical and political insights for a wide audience, experienced professionals to novice students. I recommend this work enthusiastically.”(Josiah Heyman, Director, Center for Inter-American and Border Studies and Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso)

“In clear, accessible prose, Sager challenges deeply-held assumptions about place and belonging, asking us to think of humans as first and foremost a mobile species. Essential reading.” (Reece Jones, Professor and Graduate Chair, Department of Geography, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa)

“Toward a Cosmopolitan Ethics of Mobility is at once rigorous enough to be essential reading for political theorists and empirical researchers, and clear and self-contained enough to serve as an introduction to migration for students and general readers everywhere. Sager's brief manifesto is a morally impassioned and philosophically rigorous call to shake off long-held assumptions and biases that distort research and public debate on migration, and to replace them with a critical cosmopolitanism that is more concerned about how people fare than about who is living where.” (Avery Kolers, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Social Change Program, University of Louisville)

“Toward a Cosmopolitan Ethics of Mobility is a must-read intervention into contemporary liberal political theory from the perspective of the migrant. It offers nothing less than a crushing and systematic critique of the methodological nationalism and sedentarist politics that currently and unfortunately dominates political theory today. In its place Sager puts forward a carefully-argued and much-needed new foundation for contemporary political theory: a critical cosmopolitanism and a political theory of mobility that begins with the primacy of movement andmigration. This is the kind of book we need now more than ever.” (Thomas Nail, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Denver)

Alexander Sager is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Portland State University, USA.