A central theme within the research field Cultural Theory at Södertörn University is the understanding of cosmopolitanism seen from a Baltic, East and Central European perspective. Some of the research projects within the field focus on ethnic conflicts whereas others examine new cosmopolitan processes in the area. These new processes include the construction of new identities, which emerge due to increased transnational contacts, relationships through the information and communication technology and what the sociologist Ulrich Beck calls a cosmopolitan vision (Beck, 2006). This paper deals with the research project Peace, New Identity Constructions and Cosmopolitan, Intercultural Learning Processes in the Global Society, and some preliminary results will be presented here. The objectives of the project are to investigate young peoples’ values in Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Poland.  In this paper we present some results about young people's values regarding peace, cosmopolitanism, and intercultural learning.

Theory

The investigation is carried out within the theoretical frame of the new cosmopolitanism, i.e. a cosmopolitanism rooted in an old tolerant view of multiculturalism but rejecting a cosmopolitanism, which actually expresses Western universalism. This cosmopolitanism, including vernacular, dialogical and inclusive cosmopolitanism, which has emerged during the last twenty years might be a vision of global democracy and world citizenship, a quest for creating new transnational frames of cooperation between social movements or post identity politics for hybrid or heterogenic groups, contradicting the conventional view of belonging, identity and citizenship (Vertovec & Cohen, 2002). According to Stuart Hall (2002) cosmopolitanism means to fetch cultural traits from many cultural and ethical systems. He emphasizes the importance of being able to live together in the same place but simultaneously keeping up a certain degree of sense of difference. He does not believe in the traditional liberal universalism, which presupposes a neutral state with autonomous, liberal citizens without cultural or ethnic bonds. Therefore it is necessary to find a way between universalism and particularism. Social constructionism has rejected the idea of inherent, unchanging identities (Burr, 2003). Instead, identity is seen as constantly changing in a mutual process between the individual and the environment. Especially during post-modernity, identity is understood as increasingly volatile and hybrid, influenced by transnational and cosmopolitan processes. Homi K. Bhabha (2004) has emphasized the importance of mixed, hybrid cultures, which influence the construction of identity in an in-between, “third” space. Inspired by his research Goldstein-Kyaga and Borgström have examined a so-called "third" type of identity, which develops in a society increasingly influenced by transnational processes. An aspect of this is a cosmopolitan identity, which is usual among persons with multiple cultural belongings (Borgström & Goldstein-Kyaga, 2006, Goldstein-Kyaga & Borgström, 2009). In our research project, the concept of positive peace introduced by Galtung (2000) is used to emphasize the fact that peace is more than just the absence of violence. It refers to a genuinely peaceful situation characterized by peaceful values of the individual and social institutions that support equitable distribution of public resources and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Such a situation is also characterized by the absence of "indirect" or "structural violence", i.e. a type of violence inherent in the society where more people might die in the long run due to unequal and discriminatory treatment than at the outbreak of open violence (Galtung & Jacobsen, 2000, Galtung, 1990).

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