Paths+to+Early+Modernities+–+A+Comparative+View

Looking beyond Europe, to see if any other civilizations developed similarly
 * =Title= || Paths to Early Modernities- A Comparative View ||
 * =Author= || Eisenstadt et al ||
 * =Date= ||  ||
 * =Summary By= || Tatiana ||
 * =Summary= || Looking at modernity in comparative perspective

New approach to modernity must avoid 3 fallacies There is only one modernity Looking west to east legitimates ‘orientalism’ Globalization and multiculturalism as signs of post modernity

50s-60s modernity theories: convergence Modernization would eliminate major “cultural, institutional, structural and mental differences;” (2) minor differences would remain, but generally would fade away. Reality did not reflect this, not even in the West.

In fact “codes of modernity “have been shaped by the continuous interaction between cultural codes of these societies and their exposure to new internal and external challenges” (5).

What about multiple modernities? Can the “Eurocentric analysis of modernity adequately account for other historical experiences? Orientalists would argue that theories of modernity and the concepts employed by western scholars were “culturally bound instruments to impose a western cultural pattern on non western states”(6). Opposed to this are studies of the subaltern Critics of the modern state as the unit of analysis (criticize subaltern studies for its use of western categories)

What about the use of European concepts in examining other civilizations? More specifically civil society and nationalism? || Is it actually possible to escape our cultural (or Western) lens when evaluating or examining non-western cultural (modern) developments? Especially if our understanding comes from translation of foreign concepts to something culturally relevant to us?
 * =Discussion points= || It is impossible to avoid western concepts “but can make them flexible, through differentiation and contextualization. The grand purpose seems to be encouraging other perspectives

How can we be sure that our terms are “flexible enough”. Is there some sort of guideline or checklist for evaluating such a thing? || = = = = = = = = = = = =

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