Histories of Sociology in East Asia

In this chapter, I aim to delineate the distinctive characteristics and historical trajectories of sociology in East Asia, and propose to conceptualize it as “semi-peripheral”. Both academic dependency and relative autonomy define the relationship of East Asian sociology with the social science centers in the West, particularly North America. While in East Asia the sociological discipline has undergone rapid growth under Western influences, sociologists are keen to pursue indigenization and alternative paradigms of modernization and modernity – yet these efforts are more successful in reaffirming national cultures than transcending the Eurocentric framework of Western sociology. This general observation applies to Japanese sociology, which has been the most committed to Westernization; to Korean sociology, in which a critical tradition is rooted in anti-colonial struggle; and to Chinese sociology, in which resistance against Western hegemony is part of ideological orthodoxy. Despite the variety of historical experiences, institutional settings and intellectual orientations, a common goal of East Asian sociologists is to catch up with and eventually surpass the West in terms of scholarly achievements and international recognition. But in the process, East Asian sociology risks becoming the mirror image of its Western counterpart.