Author Description

Product Description With its specific focus on Asia, this anthology constitutes an excursion into the realm of transversality, or the state of "postethnicity," which, the book argues, has come to characterize the global culture of our times. Hwa Yol Jung brings together prominent contemporary thinkers―including Thich Nhat Hanh, Edward Said, and Judith Butler―to address this fundamental and important aspect of comparative political theory. The book is divided into three parts. Part One demythologizes Eurocentrism, deconstructing the privilege of modern Europe as the world's cultural, scientific, religious, and moral capital. Part Two traces the rise of Asian thought and the process of East-West cultural hybridization, while Part Three introduces the concept of the "global citizen." Jung's anthology reveals a postmodern multiculturalism whose new philosophical matrix transgresses the existing cultural and intellectual typology to offer new understanding of today's pluralistic world. Review This excellent collection is an eye-opener: not only is a truly comparative political theory possible, but, as testified by the essays gathered here, the basic materials―both conceptual and substantive―already exist. One can only hope that Western political thought will now venture farther down the road that Hwa Yol Jung has made available. -- Tracy B. Strong, Professor of Political Thought and Philosophy, University of Southampton Comparative Political Culture in the Age of Globalization is a much needed and richly textured introduction to comparative political theory. The collection of essays focusing on political culture is set within broader philosophical contexts― phenomenological, deconstructive, hermeneutic―and provides the reader with convincing arguments for the importance, indeed today the necessity, of a global perspective that gives credence to a plurality of values and ways of making human experience intelligible. --