Towards a cosmopolitan localism. The border thinking of Walter Mignolo.

The tradition of cosmopolitan thinking that was started at the time of the Enlightenment by Immanuel Kant can be seen as exemplary for the Western, Eurocentric thinking that wanted to establish itself as a universal model for the entire world community. The resulting imaginary is vertical, hierarchical, dualistic and monological. This model of modernity inevitably and inextricably carries with it an image of colonialism, as is convincingly shown in the work of Walter Mignolo and Enrique Dussel, among others. This is an image of expansion and imperialism that considers itself to be a force for salvation and wants to 'civilize' the rest of the world. The cosmopolitanism formulated by Immanuel Kant does not escape this: it is a parochialism that thinks of itself as being universal.
However, this is only one dimension of Western Eurocentric imperialism. In recent decades, we have observed that this way of thinking has not only adopted an aggressive colonialist stance, but that it is now also falling into a stubborn isolation, with borders becoming walls and the main task being to keep out the 'stranger'.