ABSTRACT

This book investigates modern global civilization, offering an alternative to post-colonial theories and the "multiple modernities" approach (as well as the civilizational theory linked to it). It argues that modernity has become a global civilization that is heterogeneous and intertwined with other civilizations, and also aims at a renewal of critical theory that is not US-centric and Eurocentric, focusing instead on China, South Asia (India) and Latin America (Brazil). Dealing with the themes of centre-periphery relations, complexity (including culture and religion), democracy and emancipatory possibilities, this book is based on general theoretical ideas such as collective subjectivity, the interplay of memory and creativity, and the concept of "modernizing moves," so as to deal with historical contingency.

chapter |6 pages

General Introduction

part |24 pages

Critical Theory and Modern Civilization

part |62 pages

Polarized Flexible Accumulation in an Unequal World

chapter |6 pages

Part II Introduction

chapter |17 pages

China Takes Off

The East Asian Experience

chapter |16 pages

Latin America

Slipping Back to the Past?

chapter |12 pages

India In and Out of South Asia

Dreams And Illusions

chapter |9 pages

Part II Conclusion

part |67 pages

Complexity and Re-Embeddings, Solidarity and Abstractions

chapter |8 pages

Part III Introduction

chapter |20 pages

India, Indic Civilization and Social Complexity

The Radical Case

chapter |15 pages

China

Homogeneity and Post-Communist Pluralization

chapter |6 pages

Part III Conclusion

part |59 pages

Democratization and the Persistence of Domination

chapter |7 pages

Final Words