Transcultural Brokerage: The Role of Cosmopolitans in Bridging Structural and Cultural Holes

Main author: Levy, Orly
Other authors: Lee, Hyun-Jung
Jonsen, Karsten
Peiperl, Maury
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


id eprints-31925
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description The growth and proliferation of global systems and transnational cultures have generated larger and more diverse types of cosmopolitans, all of whom span conventional social boundaries. Understanding this diversity is increasingly important because cosmopolitans often bridge across a wide range of transnational and global networks within and across global organizations. Drawing on multiple disciplines, we conceptualize cosmopolitanism as an embodied disposition characterized by high levels of cultural transcendence and openness that are manifested in and enacted along varied trajectories of cultural embeddedness in one’s own culture and cultural engagement with the cultural Other. We then propose an analytical framework for the influence of cosmopolitan disposition on transcultural brokerage processes, specifically on bridging structural and cultural holes. Finally, we present a typology of cosmopolitan brokers and their corresponding practices and activities as they engage in transcultural brokerage. By recognizing the diversity of cosmopolitans and their respective dispositions, we significantly expand the pool of “global talent” beyond the traditional focus on expatriates, and we challenge the conventional wisdom on who counts as talent in an interconnected world.
format Journal Article
author Levy, Orly
author_facet Levy, Orly
Lee, Hyun-Jung
Jonsen, Karsten
Peiperl, Maury
authorStr Levy, Orly
author_letter Levy, Orly
author2 Lee, Hyun-Jung
Jonsen, Karsten
Peiperl, Maury
author2Str Lee, Hyun-Jung
Jonsen, Karsten
Peiperl, Maury
title Transcultural Brokerage: The Role of Cosmopolitans in Bridging Structural and Cultural Holes
publisher Sage
publishDate 2019
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/31925/