Western-Centrism and Contemporary Korean Political Thought

By (author) Jung In Kang

Hardback - £105.00

Publication date:

20 August 2015

Length of book:

354 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739180983

This book is an outgrowth of critical examination of Western political theory embedded in Western-centrism and the tumultuous ideational processes by which contemporary Korean political theory and reality have intensely interacted (both in convergent and divergent ways) with it. To conduct such examination the book addresses complex and variegated questions regarding Western-centrism: What is Western-centrism? How is Western-centrism to be compared and contrasted with other forms of centrism such as Sinocentrism, capitalism (bourgeois-centrism), patriarchy (male-centrism), and racism (white-centrism)? How has Western-centrism evolved in world history and in the history of Western political thought? How has Western-centrism shaped the evolution of contemporary Korean political thought? What kinds of ill effects has Western-centrism brought about in Korean society and academia? And, ultimately, how can Western-centrism be overcome?
Michel Foucault famously stated that the modern West, while priding itself of its
"democracy", has failed to abandon autocracy by refusing to "cut off the king's head".
This fact is patently evident in the global arena in the continued Western assertion of
planetary hegemony and domination. In his book, Kang Jung In valiantly wrestles with
this conundrum from a "subaltern" Korean perspective, placing his hope in the emergence
of a global civil society marked by "polycentric multiculturalism". Without equating a stubborn
local retreat, polycentrism in his view requires a combination of global openness and cultural
resistance, more specifically a "modernization of tradition" involving "learning the new by
reviewing the old". Powerfully argued, the book is a vade mecum for anyone seeking a
transit from Western-centrism into a more equitable global interaction among countries and
civilizations.