Emerging Globalities and Civilizational Perspectives

This book introduces into the current global ethics debate models of humanism developed in classical Chinese traditions, which have not yet been comprehensively presented to Western scholarship or integrated into the framework of global discourses on social ethics and morality. It creates new paradigms for an understanding of humanism that meets the demands of our time. It begins by presenting European descriptions and critical assessments of this discourse, and then moves to an exploration of humanistic ideas shaped through historical developments in Asia, with a focus on the Chinese tradition. In this sense, the book is written from a transcivilizational perspective. The methods used in the research transcend---that is, surpass and overcome---the rigid, isolating, and essentialist concept of civilization. At the same time, the book points to the possibility of transformation through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between different civilizations. Within this framework, the book starts from the assumption that the ontology of civilizations and cultures is not based on immutable substances, but on the relations between different factors that constitute them as categories. The transcivilizational perspective rooted in transcultural dialogues between philosophies that originated in different cultures and civilizations is particularly valuable because of the globalized world in which we live today. This means that the problems that affect people in different parts of the world and the issues that are embedded in different geopolitical and developmental frameworks also affect all of humanity.

This book is of particular interest to scholars and students of global ethics, globalization, Asian philosophy and Sinology.

“A very timely book that offers a sharp, agile, and clear tour through some of the concepts-horizons in which critical thinking and Latin American social movements converge, emphasizing the tensions, richness, and scope of Buen Vivir.”

— Maristella Svampa, National University of La Plata, Argentina. and recipient of the Konex Platinum Award in 2016

“… In his new book, Ronaldo Munck addresses traditional issues in a new light and reflects on how we can tip the scales towards ‘a new dawn.’ Inspiring!”

— Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Professor of Political Sociology and Critical Theory, University of Bath, UK

“Ronaldo Munck discusses a cornucopia of ideas for shaping a progressive alternative world after globalization. … An engaging and student friendly text given the clarity of its exposition.”

— Cristóbal Kay, Emeritus Professor, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands

“[This book] offers a compelling heterodox political analysis of the complex turns to the left in Latin America over the last two decades. The book captures both the complexity and the possibilities of alternative projects in Latin America. … Ronaldo Munck shows the enduring importance of Latin American thinking in our struggles to ‘(re) imagine a new future, a new dawn’.”

— Mo Hume, Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Glasgow, UK

“For those of us who thought we knew enough about globalization and Latin America, Ronaldo Munck’s wide-ranging new book will be a real eye-opener and a critical source on radical Latin American scholarship over recent decades.”

— Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, UK

“ [This book] represents an imaginative and rigorous effort to problematize Buen Vivir as concept, contribution, myth, and emancipatory horizon but, above all, as a path to take us beyond neoliberalism. ... Ronaldo Munck puts forward a radical reading of Buen Vivir, situating it in the long trajectory of critical thinking in Latin America. This is a fundamental book for understanding the theoretical, epistemic, and political possibility of a new Amerindia... ”

— Alejandra Santillana Ortiz, Director and Senior Researcher, Institute of Ecuadorian Studies, Quito, Ecuador

This book makes the powerful argument that Latin America needs to be a more central part of the discourse on emerging globalities and in the pursuit of an inter-civilizational focus to avoid West-centric perspectives. It deploys a cultural political economy approach that sees the global political economy as inescapably cultural and allows us to avoid the hyper-rational analysis of economics. It explores various aspects of contemporary Latin America from the revival of dependency theory, the ‘pink tide’ governments since 2000 and, in particular, the potential of the Andean Buen Vivir political philosophy, to offer a distinctive paradigm for sustainable global development.

The book provides a de-colonial frame and shows how many recent and new social science perspectives emerging globally are connected with Latin American scholars and Latin American social experiments: namely, dependency, decolonial and post-colonial epistemologies, post-neoliberalism, and the notion of Pluriverse. The book focuses on the cultural, the ethical, the economic and the political, and environmental dimensions of this transformation, which represents a reaction and alternative to the Western cultural, including ethical, economic, political, environmental crises.

The readership for this book includes all who are fascinated by the globalization lens on the one hand, and the experience and lessons of Latin America on the other hand.