The Labyrinth of Modernity: Horizons, Pathways and Mutations (Social Imaginaries)

Offering a vital reflection on the unity and diversity of the modern world, this important new book connects with the current debate on multiple modernities and argues that this notion can only be properly understood in a civilizational context. Johann Arnason presupposes the idea of modernity as a new civilization with its specific social imaginary, centred on strong visions of human autonomy but open to differentiation on institutional and ideological levels, as well as in changing historical contexts. The book begins by connecting this perspective to a distinctive framework of social theory, centred on the differentiation of economic, political and cultural spheres. Arnason goes on to deal with Communism as the most important alternative version of modernity, and with East Asian developments as a particularly complex and instructive case of interacting modernities. The book concludes with reflections on globalization theory and ways of reformulating it in light of the civilizational approach. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 1 Introduction 10 2 Modernity: One, Many, and Divided 15 3 Life Orders and Articulations 23 4 Contexts and Phases of Modernity 86 5 The Road to St. Petersburg 105 6 The Soviet Model 126 7 East Asian Complications 150 8 Concluding Reflections: Global Modernities in World Context 189 References 210 Index 220 About the Author 230