The Limits and Renewal of Modernity: Reflections on World Development and Asian Cultural Values

In: International sociology: the journal of the International Sociological Association, Volume 12, Issue 3, p. 259-274

Abstract

The breakdown of modernity has brought into question the future of world development. Structural changes in the West, the disintegration of socialist governments and the rise of the East Asian economies suggest the need for a serious rethinking of this question. Development can no longer be conceptualized as a hierarchy of three worlds but as a dynamic interplay of global capital, instrumental rationality and traditional values. Each of these concerns has functioned as a vital component of the old modernization paradigm, but must now be re-evaluated in the context of a new configuration of social and cultural relations. The redefinition of Confucianism in Asian development suggests important changes in the Western perception of Asian cultural values. Indeed, these changes imply the emergence of a new Orientalism that could reshape the meaning of world development.