The Logic of Compressed Modernity

Winner of the 24th Korean Sociological Association Book Award

Most theories of modernity are based, explicitly or implicitly, on the development of Western societies since the late medieval period. However, these theories are of limited value for understanding the development of societies in Asia and other parts of the world, where the process of modernization took place under different circumstances, often in a rapid and highly compressed fashion—not over centuries but in decades. Asian societies have been propelled into modernity too, but theirs is a compressed modernity, which displays very different traits.

In this important book, The Logic of Compressed Modernity, Chang Kyung-Sup provides a systematic account of this compressed modernity and uses it to analyse the extreme social changes, complexities, and imbalances found in South Korea and other East Asian societies. While these changes enabled South Korea to modernize very quickly and achieve high levels of economic growth, they also created a society that is haunted by various developmental and civilizational costs, such as endemic generational conflicts, overloaded family responsibilities, and exceptionally high suicide rates. As with other societies that have experienced compressed modernity, the South Korean "miracle" is replete with extreme and contradictory social traits.

This pioneering work on the nature and consequences of compressed modernity will be of great interest to students and scholars of sociology, politics, and development studies, as well as anyone interested in South Korea, Asia, and postcolonial societies.