Cosmopolitan Desire: Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco

(Paperback)

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Foster's timely work looks at globalization processes and the transformations that occur within a diverse society. He investigates the multicultural blend of Western and Moslem cultures in Morocco, showing how a multicultural society deals with differences, e.g., how urban secularized Moslems constitute their identities, and how they present themselves to non-Moslem Westerners. Foster's work is about close encounters-he captures the dialogues between individuals and their resistance to intolerance. He offers a combination of narrative & life history, timely investigation of the intercultural problems facing Westerners & Moslims, and a consideration of the broader psychological and political forces at work in a multicultural society. His ethnography is a rich resource for anthropologists and African studies researchers.

Reviews

This book is wonderful, and anyone interested in the shock of modernity in the Arab world should read it. Foster's haunting explorations of the hearts and minds of his Moroccan friends is both a portrait of a country and a loving collaboration in its negotiations with a changing world. He combines a storyteller's gift, an anthropologist's intellectual rigor, and a compassionate fascination with desire, confusion, and despair that has only deepened in the course of a remarkable second career in psychiatric nursing. -- Jane Kramer, author of Politics of Memory and Europeans.
This is a beautiful book about how individuals respond to globalization processes. It is also a valuable contribution to the literature on Morocco....By focusing on close encounters and the experiences of a few individual Moroccans, Foster reminds us about the complexities of human life and also introduces us to 'Moroccos' that do not usually come to the forefront. -- Miriam Latif Sandbak * Journal of Peace Research *
Its extensive scholarly commentary and anecdotal approach reflect its author's training as an anthropologist. Foster has done a masterful job of illustrating, through anecdotes, the processes and effects of modernization, at least as they affect Tangiers and such principal Moroccan cities. Foster successfully blends his scholarly and personal itineraries, carrying them forward to a satisfying destination. -- Leland Barrows, Voorhees College * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
Stephen Foster invites us to ponder the practice of ethical cosmopolitanism. In a riveting account of his many travels in Moroccoand commentary on his extensive interviews with Moroccans at home and abroadFoster provides nuanced reflections both on the desire for worldliness and on the ways worldliness brings forth new structures and meanings of desire. The result is absolutely compelling, shedding new light on the transnational tumble of culture and identity, ethics and politics. -- Greg Mullins, author of Colonial Affairs: Bowles, Burroughs and Chester Write Tangier

Author Bio

Stephen William Foster has taught anthropology at Smith College and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Past is Another Country. He is an independent scholar and a nursing administrator at San Francisco General Hospital.