Debating Civilisations: Interrogating Civilisational Analysis in a Global Age - Hardcover

Smith, Jeremy C. A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1526105284 ISBN 13: 9781526105288

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2017

Synopsis

In Debating civilisations, Jeremy Smith offers an up-to-date evaluation of the re-emerging field of civilisational analysis, tracing its main currents and comparing it to rival paradigms such as Marxism, globalisation theory and postcolonial sociology. He suggests that civilisational analysis offers an alternative approach to understanding globalisation, focusing on the dense engagement of societies, cultures, empires and civilisations in human history. Building on Castoriadis’s theory of social imaginaries, he argues that civilisations are best understood as creations made from routine contacts and connections carried out by anonymous actors over the course of long periods of time. He illustrates this argument through case studies of modern Japan, the Pacific and post-Conquest Latin America (including the revival of indigenous civilisations), exploring discourses of civilisation outside the West, within the context of growing Western imperial power.

About this title

About the Author

Jeremy C. A. Smith is Deputy Head of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Federation University Australia, Victoria -- .

From the Back Cover

In Debating civilisations, Jeremy Smith offers an up-to-date evaluation of the re-emerging field of civilisational analysis, tracing its main currents and comparing it to rival paradigms such as Marxism, globalisation theory and postcolonial sociology. He suggests that civilisational analysis offers an alternative approach to understanding globalisation, focusing on the dense engagement of societies, cultures, empires and civilisations in human history. Building on Castoriadis's theory of social imaginaries, he argues that civilisations are best understood as creations made from routine contacts and connections carried out by anonymous actors over the course of long periods of time. He illustrates this argument through case studies of modern Japan, the Pacific and post-Conquest Latin America (including the revival of indigenous civilisations), exploring discourses of civilisation outside the West, within the context of growing Western imperial power.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526105284
• ISBN 13: 9781526105288
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216