An anthropological study towards understanding cosmopolitans and cosmopolitanism in Istanbul: The case of native English teachers at foundation universities

Cosmopolitans ? citizens of the world ? and cosmopolitanism, though existing for more than 2,000 years, have gained popularity in recent years. Cosmopolitanism has made a comeback to social sciences, particularly sociology and anthropology since the beginning of 1990s. The head-spinning advances in information technologies and travel opportunities have turned the world into a global village where the borders are blurry and porous and where cultures and identities are more of a rhizomatic and fluid nature. As millions of people are on the move either for economic, political, ethnic or religious reasons, in many academic circles, new types of cosmopolitans and cosmopolitanisms are mushrooming and new cosmopolitan theories are being produced. This study aims to explore cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan identity through native English teachers (NETs) working at foundation universities and living in Istanbul. While doing so, I aimed to develop a particular insight into some of the commonalities that NETs share, which I concluded from the data I have collected and analyzed. The data collection process has been achieved through semi-structured interviews with 24 participants from various foundation universities in Istanbul. The interviews, which lasted an hour or more on average, have been transcribed and categorized according to the pre-determined themes. The findings of this study reveal that native English teachers are a cohort of people who exhibit cosmopolitan traits that are different from many of their counterparts. They are neither like those elite cosmopolitans who are the connoisseurs of fine tastes and flavors nor are they like trans-migrant, transnational, working class cosmopolitans who travel to different geographies for many reasons but mainly political, economic, socio-cultural or ethnic. But rather, they are what we call ?white-collar cosmopolitans? (Birkalan-Gedik and Sarıgül 2009) (henceforth without quotation marks) with a ?cultural capital? (Bourdieu 1998, 53) or ?expert power? and ?referent power? (French and Raven 1959, 161-163) as opposed to ?blue-collar cosmopolitans? (Birkalan-Gedik and Sarıgül 2009) as a class-based categorization. The main conclusions drawn from this work should be that NETs are a distinct group of white-collar cosmopolitans with some identity crises. This research suggests that not all the individuals who are on the move and go to live in different and remote cultures are cosmopolitans in the sense that they are the citizens of the world. In other words, being a cosmopolitan requires engagement with the alien culture as well as distancing him/herself from his/her own. Key words: cosmopolitan, white-collar cosmopolitan, cosmopolitanism, identity, nationalism, patriotism, home, homeland.