Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: Cultivating Planetary Conversations

ISBN-13: 9789811070945 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 472 str.

Ananta Kumar Giri

Opis

Critically exploring the presuppositions of contemporary social theory, this collection argues for a trans-civilizational dialogue and a deepening of the universe of intellectual discourse in order to transform sociology into a truly planetary conversation on the human condition.

Spis treści

Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: An Introduction and an Invitation

Part One: Theorizing as Dancing Transformations: Social Theory, Asian Dialogues and Beyond

Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: Cultivating Planetary Conversations

Theorizing Alternative Futures of Asia: Activating Enabling Traditions

Critical Theory after the Rise of the Global South

Beyond Ethnocentrism: Towards a Global Social Theory

Part Two: Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: Creative Engagement and Transformative Learning

Selfhood and Morality: East-Asian and Western Dimensions

Iridescent Self in the Womb of the Wholly M(O)ther:  A Vajrayani Meditation

The Taijitu, Western Dialectics, and Brain Hemisphere Function: A Dialogue facilitated by the Scholarship of Complex Integration

A Middle Way of Emptying Dualism in Social Theory

Indo-Chinese Knowledge and Wisdom: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue Between Confucius and Tiruvalluvar

Dancing East and West: Charting Intercultural Possibilities in the Thought of Gilles Deleuze and Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

The Micropolitics and Metaphysics of Mobility and Nomadism: A Comparative Study of Rahul Sankrityayan’s ‘GhumakkaṚ ŚĀatra’ and Gilles Deleuze / FÉlix Guattari’s ‘Nomadology’

From Ecological Ontology to Social Ecology: John Dewey, Radhakamal Mukerjee, and Interscalar Ethics

Part Three: Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: Asia, Europe and the Call of Planetary Conversions

Nature, Culture and the Debate With Modernity: Critical Social Theory in Japan

The Self-Description of Society in East Asia: If It is Not Society, What Else Could it Be?

An Intercultural Perspective on Chinese Aesthetics

Making Sociology Universal: Revisiting the Contributions of Syed Hussein Alatas

Political Intrusion in Social Science: The Elimination of Leftist Critical Thinking in Indonesia

Social Welfare and Harmony in East Asia and the Nordic Region

Critical Theory and Communicative Action: The Challenge of Legitimation in a World at Risk

The Gift of the Grain: Beyond Biopolitics?

Democracy and Meritocracy: A New Inter-Civilizational Challenge

Afterword: Communication and the Consilience of Eastern and Western Ideas.

O autorze

Ananta Kumar Giri is on the faculty of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India. He has taught and done research at universities in India and abroad, including Aalborg University in Denmark, the University of Kentucky, USA, the University of Freiburg & Humboldt University, Germany and Jagiellonian University in Poland. His research interests lie in social movements and cultural change, criticism, creativity and contemporary dialectics of transformation, theories of self, culture and society, and creative streams in education, philosophy and literature. 

Blurb

Critically exploring the presuppositions of contemporary social theory, this collection argues for a trans-civilizational dialogue and a deepening of the universe of intellectual discourse in order to transform sociology into a truly planetary conversation on the human condition. Focusing on perspectives from Asia, notably East Asia and India, it interrogates presuppositions in contemporary critical social theory about man, culture and society, and considers central themes such as knowledge and power, knowledge and liberation. The diverse contributions tackle key questions such the globalization of social theory, identity and society in east asia, as well as issues such as biopolitics, social welfare and eurocentrism. They also examine dialogues along multiple trajectories between social theorists from the Euro-American world and from the Asian universe, such as between Kant and Gandhi, Habermas and Sri Aurobindo, the Bildung tradition in Europe and the Confucian traditions. Arguing for a global comparative engagement and cross-cultural dialogue, this is a key read for all those interested in the future of social theory in the wake of globalization and the rise of the global south.