Modernization in East Asia: Political, Economic, and Social Perspectives - Hardcover

by Richard Harvey Brown (Editor), William T. Liu (Editor)

In this volume East Asia is used as a unit of political and economic analysis to reveal an approach to modernization that is distinct from the Western model. The volume especially focuses on the interaction between nations of East Asia; the advantages and limits of export-led growth; relations between such processes as state formation, industrial growth, urbanization, and the movement from status- to class-based social hierarchies; and the links between state, market, and civic culture.

Each chapter takes at least one country as its topic. There also is a comparative and regional perspective provided within many of the contributions. All the chapters present fresh insights and analyses with intellectual and historical depth. Modernization in East Asia contains useful theoretical frameworks and empirical data for scholars, practitioners, and students.

Author Biography

RICHARD HARVEY BROWN is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and President of the Washington Institute for Social Research. His current research interests are in the comparative political economy and cultural psychology of developing societies and advanced capitalist states. He has written or edited six volumes in this area. Dr. Brown is internationally reknowned as a theorist of the social sciences and has lectured in major universities of Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and the United States.

WILLIAM T. LIU is a founder of the Center for East-West Studies in Hong Kong. His research interests are in social change and East-West relations as they are associated with international migration. Dr. Liu's academic life includes more than a decade of teaching at the University of Notre Dame, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Director of the Social Science Research and Training Institute, and Director of the Center for the Study of Man in Contemporary Society. He has written or edited 8 volumes, and more than 100 papers in scientific journals, chapters in books, and proceedings.