some questions about the class this morning
Dear students,LiYao raised some questions about the class this morning, and you are all encouraged to participate in the dicussion.
The questions raised by LiYao:
In the first place, you have mentioned the four aspects of the modernity, including science, market, state and individualism. Is it true that these are referred to as they are different from the traditional society? If the answer is “yes”, then what, do you think, is the essential difference between the modernity and the rational modernity, that is, the “post-modern” termed by Giddens or “risk society” by Beck. Moreover, you have mentioned that two models, Classic Model and Current Model, are successively produced by scholars aiming at analyzing and solving social problems in the two different worlds, Modern World and Globalized World. The problem is that I still could not tell the difference of the two model clearly. Also, do there exist some social problems shared by both worlds resulting from the same root? The same problem recurs whenever certain conditions are satisfied. For instance, once the government lack effective controls on the capital, the social welfare problems to the workers occur both in the beginning period of modern world and the globalized world.
These problems are raised because when I try to use the models to consider the social problems in China, I often feel confused and have no idea of which model to use to settle a certain problem or whether both of them should be involved. It seems that in the process of social tranformation, China makes an effort to develop towards to a modern society. On the other hand, after the open door polices introduced, China has more and more been involved into the world. Therefore, both worlds have some effects on China’s development. Nonetheless, if a particular problem is asked to be carefully analyzed, it is difficult to make distinctions between the two effects.
As for the social problems in China, my one-month investigation in my hometown gave me an opportunity to watch and hear from the life world and find out many social problems in detail. After fifteen interviews with the workers and mangers of state-owned enterprises, I have discovered the surprising discrepancies between the dominant discourses and the workers’ own explanations on the reasons and results of the state enterprises reform. Furthermore, I was shocked by the myriads social problems existing in the social transformation and it is interesting to discover that many of the problems are quite similar with the ones in Korea as you have described in your paper, Social Transformation and Critical Theory Three Methodological Issues. o i don,t kown what does it mean at all
Han's short response
I am sympathetic to the question raised by LiYao since it touches exactly the problem that I have considered to be important in exploring what sociologists should do today, particularly in East Asia.Perhaps, we are not yet fully prepared to see how deeply a new development (often described
as post-modern, late modern, risk society or globalization) affects our lives. Furthermroe, as LiYao correctly pointed out, we are given a double-edged task of comprehending the major problems
arising from modernization AND globalization as two interrelated, yet very different phases of
structural change.
I guess it poses far greater challenges to sociologists in East Asia than in the West since we
confront these two processes at the same time. It is why I emphasize that it is not enough to
understand the Western social theory as it stands today, but that it must be brought into
contact with the reality of East Asian developments.
I see significant difference between modernizing world and globalizing world. China and Korea are not so different in this respect since both must respond to these great challenges at the same
time.
We should continue to talk about these sorts of subject in the class.
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