Lori Contributes Chapter to the Oxford Handbook on Cosmopolitanism
Professor Noora Lori recently published a chapter titled “Cosmopolitanism and the Right to Travel” in the Oxford Handbook of Cosmopolitanism. This chapter complements Lori’s forthcoming book Passport Power, which explores the role of passports, the right to travel, and the spread of citizenship by investment.
In this chapter, Lori characterizes travel as a central feature of cosmopolitanism, drawing key differences between traveling for brief periods (right to visit) and migration (right to reside). By highlighting inequalities around the right to travel, Lori sheds light on a global hierarchy that shapes how cosmopolitanism is understood as a moral framework and way of being in the world.
Focusing on contemporary political discourse along with the latest research, Lori analyzes the intersection of travel and cosmopolitanism from two dimensions. First, how cosmopolitan theorists explain the importance of travel for producing normative commitments of globally engaged citizens. Second, how the right to travel and access to “global citizenship” is regulated, hierarchized, and monetized in contemporary visa and citizenship regimes.
Lori concludes that mobility rights, i.e., the right to travel can’t be separated from membership rights, i.e., citizenship status while raising questions about what this means for emerging solutions for achieving cosmopolitan citizenship and justice. With mobility and membership rights being intertwined, the professor argues that any vision of cosmopolitan justice must acknowledge and deal with how aspects like time, legal status, and global inequalities shape which person gets to move, how, and under what circumstances.
To read the full chapter, click here.
Noora Lori is an associate professor of international relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies. She is also the director of the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) initiative. With a broad focus on citizenship, migration, and statelessness, Lori has written about citizenship regimes and naturalization policies, temporary migration schemes, and racial hierarchies in comparative perspective. Her first book, Offshore Citizens: Permanent “Temporary” Status in the Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2019), received the Best Book Prize from the Migration and Citizenship section of the American Political Science Association (2020). To read more about her work and achievements, visit her faculty profile.