Social Theory in Contemporary Asia

Philosophical debates around individualization and the implications for intimacy, reflexivity, and identity have occupied a central part of social and cultural theorizing in the West in the last decade. In fact, late modernity has become conspicuously engaged with issues of intimacy, reflexivity, and identity. The author analyses the relevance of these debates in the context of contemporary Asia and combines an analysis of significant social theorists including Beck, Giddens, Bourdieu, McNay, Adkins, and Ong with an application of these debates to social, political, and cultural contexts. Drawing on empirical research, case studies, global reports, media, and academic literature, the book provides a relevant, wide-ranging, and contemporary analysis of the debates on Asian culture and society. In the Foreword to the book Bryan Turner, Professor Brooks shows that the intimate and emotional cultures described by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck with respect to the West have not arrived in Asia, or at least, they have not become visible and permanent aspects of the social landscape.