The Development of Modern South Korea Book

Preface     ix
Introduction     1
Korean civilization and cultural tradition     7
The configuration of Korean civilization     9
A stocktaking on historical sociology of Korean civilization     9
Civilization theories     13
Korean civilizational development under the shadow of China and Japan     24
Peculiarities of Korean civilization     32
The search for meaning in Korean culture     36
Beyond particularism and universalism     37
The core cultural traditions: Shamanism and Confucianism     44
State formation     55
State formation in post-colonial Korea     57
The theoretical background     57
State formation in early Korean history     64
State formation in post-colonial Korea: a key modern project     71
Civil society, reflexive subject and transformative culture     82
Beyond action and system theory     82
The dimension of cultural imaginary     90
Capitalist development     101
The historical sociology of Korea's modernization     103
The historical trajectory of Korean modernization     103
The South Korean project of modernization     108
Korea's rise and integration into the world system     116
South Korea's integration into the world system: in search of a niche     116
State autonomy and economic modernization     123
The Korean economic crisis: the end of a miracle or a turning point?     130
Direct causes of the economic crisis     130
Background to the economic crisis: the structural weakness     132
Changes in the mode of accumulation     136
South Korea in transition     140
Nationalism and reunification     143
National identity, nationalism and nation building in Korea     145
Nation-state and nationalism     145
Struggle for national identity: Korean nationalism     149
Nationalism and nation building     155
Reunification and a new national identity     159
Reunification as a radical project of state formation     164
The unfinished project of state formation     164
Korea's reunification: so close yet so far?     169
Geopolitical variations: impediment or support?     174
A rapprochement: slow but steady     177
Conclusion     180
Notes     185
Bibliography     209
Index     232