The Order of the World in House and State : Governing Social Life in a West-Eastern Comparison

In the world, the home and the state prove themselves and change as basic institutions of human coexistence. They are the subject of a comparative study on an ecotheoretical basis. In the global context, the modes of social control have developed differently in the home and the state. In and with them, order is created in the world and for the individual and collective conduct of life. The institutional frameworks of house and state in the world are ways of shaping existence that are juxtaposed in their European-Occidental and East Asian forms: Their discussion takes place along the ancient Greek basic concepts and forms of thought of the oikos, the polis and the cosmos on the one hand and the ancient Chinese categories jia, guo and tianxia on the other. They are discussed with their ethical, political and economic references in their traditional and contemporary meaning and with regard to their ecological sustainability. The interest in a discursive understanding of sustainable, life-serving orders in the face of global challenges is the guiding principle Contents 1: Introduction 1.1 Cultures of Designing Existence and Their Ecology 1.2 Divergent Semantics 1.3 How We Are Housed and Governed 2: The Space of Action and the Order of the House, the State and the World 2.1 The Household 2.2 Statehood 2.3 World Order 3: The Acting Human Being Between Home and World 3.1 Indoors and Outdoors 3.2 Intermediary Political Action 3.3 Cosmos in Ecological Format 3.4 Ritual Order 4: Jia and Guo: Internal Relations of Governance 4.1 East Asian Familialism 4.2 The Dimensions of Guo 4.3 The Granting of Freedoms 5: Statehood West and East 5.1 The Foundation of the Modern State in Europe 5.2 The East Asian Character of the “State Family” 5.3 The Modernization of the State System in East Asia 5.4 Governance in Transition: Decline and Renewal of Statehood 6: The Fabric of the Common 6.1 Being Bound and Being Unbound 6.2 Being Subject and Host 6.3 Community Cohesion 7: Origin and Disappearance of Society 7.1 The Origin of Society 7.2 The Late Appearance of the Social 7.3 Society and Its State 7.4 The East Asian Reconstruction of “Society” 7.5 Civil Society in the State and Towards It 8: Responsibility for Welfare 8.1 Changing Welfare Regimes 8.2 Cultures of Own Sustenance and Supply 8.3 Productive and Mixed Welfare 9: Towards Concordance “Under Heaven” 9.1 Global Liabilities 9.2 The Concept of “Harmony” or the Quest for New Concordance 9.3 Shaping Existence Today and Tomorrow in House and State References As basic institutions of human coexistence in the world, the house and the state continue to prove themselves and to change. House (i. e., the domestic setting as the primary economic and social unit) and state are the subject of a comparative study on an ecotheoretical basis. In the global context, the modes of societal regulation have developed differently in the domestic sphere and in the sphere of the state. In them and with them, order is created in the world and for the individual and collective conduct of life. The institutional frameworks of house and state in the world are ways of shaping existence that are juxtaposed in their European-Occidental and East Asian forms: The treatment of the topic takes place along the ancient Greek basic concepts and forms of thought of the oikos, the polis and the cosmos on the one hand and the ancient Chinese categories jia, guo and tianxia on the other. They are discussed with their ethical, political and economic references in their traditional and contemporary meaning and with regard to their ecological viability. The interest in a discursive understanding of sustainable, life-serving orders in the face of global challenges is the guiding motive