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Most theories of modernity are based, explicitly or implicitly, on the development of Western societies since the late medieval period, but these theories are of limited value for understanding the development of societies in Asia and other parts of the world, where the process of modernization took place under different circumstances and often in a rapid and highly compressed fashion - not over centuries but in decades. Asian societies have been propelled into modernity too, but theirs is a compressed modernity, which displays very different traits.
In this important book, Chang Kyung-Sup provides a systematic account of this compressed modernity and uses it to analyse the extreme social changes, complexities and imbalances found in South Korea and other East Asian societies. While these changes enabled South Korea to modernize very quickly and achieve high levels of economic growth, they also created a society that is haunted by various developmental and civilizational costs, such as endemic generational conflicts, overloaded family responsibilities and exceptionally high suicide rates. As with other societies that have experienced compressed modernity, the South Korean "miracle" is replete with extreme and contradictory social traits.
This pioneering work of the nature and consequences of compressed modernity will be of great interest to students and scholars of sociology, politics and development studies, as well as anyone interested in South Korea, Asia and postcolonial societies.
List of contents
List of Figures, Tables and Illustrations
Preface
Part I. Compressed Modernity in Perspective
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Compressed Modernity: Constitutive Dimensions and Manifesting Units
Chapter 3. Compressed Modernity in the Universalist Perspective
Part II. Structural Properties of Compressed Modernity
Chapter 4. Internal Multiple Modernities: South Korea as Multiplex Theater Society
Chapter 5. Transformative Contributory Rights: Citizen(ship) in Compressed Modernity
Chapter 6. Complex-Culturalism vs. Multiculturalism
Chapter 7. Productive Maximization, Reproductive Meltdown
Chapter 8. Social Institutional Deficits and Infrastructural Familialism
Chapter 9. The Demographic Configuration of Compressed Modernity
Part III. After Compressed Modernity
Chapter 10. The Post-Compressed Modern Condition
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Chang Kyung-Sup is a Professor of Sociology at Seoul National University.
Summary
Most theories of modernity are based, explicitly or implicitly, on the development of Western societies since the late medieval period, but these theories are of limited value for understanding the development of societies in Asia and other parts of the world, where the process of modernization took place under different circumstances and often in a rapid and highly compressed fashion - not over centuries but in decades. Asian societies have been propelled into modernity too, but theirs is a compressed modernity, which displays very different traits.
In this important book, Chang Kyung-Sup provides a systematic account of this compressed modernity and uses it to analyse the extreme social changes, complexities and imbalances found in South Korea and other East Asian societies. While these changes enabled South Korea to modernize very quickly and achieve high levels of economic growth, they also created a society that is haunted by various developmental and civilizational costs, such as endemic generational conflicts, overloaded family responsibilities and exceptionally high suicide rates. As with other societies that have experienced compressed modernity, the South Korean "miracle" is replete with extreme and contradictory social traits.
This pioneering work of the nature and consequences of compressed modernity will be of great interest to students and scholars of sociology, politics and development studies, as well as anyone interested in South Korea, Asia and postcolonial societies.
Report
"An original and fascinating work by a distinguished and globally versed Korean sociologist, critically reflecting on the societies of the multi-faceted 'compressed modernity' coming out of the extraordinary rise and transformation of South Korea and of East Asia."
Göran Therborn, University of Cambridge
"An important view from the dynamic East Asia, this book is an excellent presentation of compressed modernity theory as a surpassing of classical modernization theory. A must-read for scholars of development and of South Korea and Asia in general."
Paget Henry, Brown University
