Offering an alternative discourse on modernization and development viewed specifically from the East Asia perspective, this book focuses its analysis on the Korean experience of modernization and development. It considers the broad range of societal transformations which have occurred over the past half century, utilizing the vernacular language of Korea extracted from everyday life to interpret, characterize, globalize and pedagogically broaden the understanding and the human meaning behind these complex social changes.

Dr Kim Kyong-Dong is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Seoul National University, South Korea. The preeminent sociologist in Korea, he has devoted his career to analyzing and comparing "east" and "west" issues from a cultural perspective. After gaining his PhD at Cornell University in the US, Professor Kim was a visiting scholar in the US, Taiwan, France and a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington, DC, as well as President of the Korean Sociological Association. He has widely published in English, Korean, Japanese and French on issues of development and modernization, social change and industrialization, sociological theory, education and religion.