Care and cosmopolitanism - with Nigel Rapport

How can we care for others while respecting their individuality? What is meant by a cosmopolitan ethos and how might it motivate care? And can institutions really 'care'? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode with Nigel Rapport, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at St Andrews University in Scotland, founding director of the Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies, and the author of Cosmopolitan Love and Individuality: Ethical Engagement beyond Culture (Rowman and Littlefield).

We cover the following topics in this episode:

The trajectory of Nigel’s career as an anthropologist and the origins of his interest in theories of care (02:40)

The importance of creative writers and artists for Nigel’s anthropological writing (07:55)

The influence of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas on Nigel’s thinking (11:40)

Nigel's ethnographic fieldwork with porters in a Scottish hospital (22:50)

The notion of the ‘personal preserve’ and the circumstances in which care might require inaction rather than action (30:05)

'Cosmopolitan politesse’ and its potential for transforming personal relationships and public policy (35:35)

How 'categorical thinking' and identity politics distort human individuality (41:00)

A response to criticism that a cosmopolitan ethos might be insufficient to motivate care (47:00)

The caring institution (55:00)

A personal coda on Jewish identity and Nigel’s forthcoming book on Israel and Zionism (01:00:13)

Link to Nigel’s academic profile

The University of St Andrews Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies

A selection of Nigel’s publications

The Trouble with Community: Anthropological Reflections on Movement, Identity and Collectivity (with Vered Amit) (2002)

Of Orderlies and Men: Hospital Porters Achieving Wellness at Work (2008)

‘Anthropology through Levinas: knowing the uniqueness of ego and the mystery of otherness’, Current Anthropology (2015)

Cosmopolitan Love and Individuality: Ethical Engagement beyond Culture (2018)

‘The action and inaction of care: care and the personal preserve’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology (2018)

‘The life-project of personal wellbeing: modern healthcare and the individuality of health’, in Rapport, F. and Braithwaite, J. (eds.) Transforming Healthcare with Qualitative Research (2021)

'I am Here, Abraham said': Emmanuel Levinas and Anthropological Science (forthcoming, April 2024)

Other publications mentioned in the episode

Andrew Dobson, 'Thick cosmopolitanism', Political Studies (2006)

Wendy Hollway, The Capacity to Care: Gender and Ethical Subjectivity (2007)

Alan Dershowitz, The Case for Israel (2004)

Some of the writers and thinkers discussed in the episode

Iris Murdoch

Emmanuel Levinas

Joan Tronto

Simone Weil