Introducing Trieste: a cosmopolitan city?

摘要

In this introductory piece, I use the concept of cosmopolitanism as a framework around which to discuss both Trieste the city and the papers that make up this special themed issue. Intriguingly, Trieste relates closely to two of the principal discursive worlds around which contemporary understandings of cosmopolitanism have been built: the more restricted usage by historians and anthropologists referring to the cities of the eastern Mediterranean, which I call here Oriental cosmopolitanism, and the aspirational cosmopolitanism of current debates around new forms of European (and indeed world) governance, which I have called European cosmopolitanism. In both these senses, Trieste prompts reflection on what cosmopolitanism may mean, not least in its passage through periods of ethnic division and conflict. I conclude by echoing the sentiments of Minca and Bialasiewicz in their contributions to this themed issue and suggesting that Trieste might indeed be well placed to serve as laboratory for a cosmopolitan European future.