Originally published in Section Culture: Newsletter of the ASA Culture Section. Spring 2020, Vol 32. Issue 1 Book Symposium: The Civil Sphere in East Asia (2019, Cambridge) Yu Ching Cheng International Research Fellow Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  It is the spring of self-quarantine, it is the season of contemplating the world. It is the worst of times for the civil sphere to advance itself, … Continue reading Symposium: A Tale of Two Civil Spheres

Originally published in Section Culture: Newsletter of the ASA Culture Section. Spring 2020, Vol 32. Issue 1 Book Symposium: The Civil Sphere in East Asia (2019, Cambridge) Lyn Spillman Professor of Sociology, Univ. of Notre Dame The normative and political significance of investigating “the civil sphere in East Asia” has been emphasized with every headline from Hong Kong in recent months, and this book is a pleasure … Continue reading Symposium: East Asian Political Cultures and Civil Sphere Theory

Originally published in Section Culture: Newsletter of the ASA Culture Section. Spring 2020, Vol 32. Issue 1 Book Symposium: The Civil Sphere in East Asia (2019, Cambridge) Ming-Cheng M. Lo Professor of Sociology, UC-Davis The Civil Sphere in East Asia presents a dynamic conversation between East Asian experiences and Jeffrey Alexander’s civil sphere theory. Among other things, this monumental volume transcends beyond two unhelpful mainstream approaches, both … Continue reading Symposium: Between East Asian cases and Western-originated concepts

Originally published in Section Culture: Newsletter of the ASA Culture Section. Spring 2020, Vol 32. Issue 1 Book Symposium: The Civil Sphere in East Asia (2019, Cambridge) Sadia Saeed Assistant Professor of Sociology, Univ. of San Francisco  The Civil Sphere in East Asia builds on Jeffrey Alexander’s Civil Sphere Theory (CST) and is part of a broader collaborative effort to assess and assert CST’s applicability to contexts … Continue reading Symposium: On “Applicability” of CST to Non-Western Contexts

Originally published in Section Culture: Newsletter of the ASA Culture Section. Spring 2020, Vol 32. Issue 1 Book Symposium: The Civil Sphere in East Asia (2019, Cambridge) Jeffrey C. Alexander Professor of Sociology, Yale University  I am grateful to Ming-Cheng Lo, Sadia Saeed, and Lyn Spillman for their attentive and detailed readings, and most of all for their recognition that The Civil Sphere in East Asia (CSEA) … Continue reading Symposium: Against the Idea of “Western Modernity”: Axial Foundations and Contemporary Civil Spheres in East Asia

Originally published in Section Culture: Newsletter of the ASA Culture Section. Spring 2020, Vol 32. Issue 1 Book Symposium: The Civil Sphere in East Asia (2019, Cambridge) David A. Palmer Professor of Sociology, Univ. of Hong Kong   Spillman recounts how The Civil Sphere in East Asia helped her to make sense of daily headlines on the Hong Kong protests of 2019. She asks, “when do different … Continue reading Symposium: The Geopolitics of Civil Spheres: Hong Kong and the China Factor