Grenzüberschreitungen. Eine biographische Ann herung

In this paper I concentrate on cosmopolitanism’s protean quality’ (Hannerz), its elusiveness andflexibility both as analytical tool and as experience. I explore the life of Agata Gonzáles, a Gitano(Gypsy/Roma) woman from Madrid, tracing the emergence of a cosmospolitan subjectivity. In thisethnographic context, cosmopolitanism appears and disappears from view; changes in character,intensity and effect; and is at some times an ideal, even a day-dream, and at others an unavoidableand fully practical way of dealing with the world. The paper demonstrates the potential fragility ofborder-crossing orientations and argues the need to acknowledge the anti-heroic qualities of emergentcosmopolitan subjectivities.