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‘MODERNITY’: CONTEXTUALIZING THE JAPANESE CASE Every analysis of specific patterns and results of modernization presupposes an implicit or explicit theory of modernity. With regard to the specific approach on which the following discussion is based, it should be noted that I prefer not to define modernity as a cultural project which has so far had only a limited and one-sided impact on social structures (Habermas) or as a socio-economic system that has gradually expanded around the globe and repeatedly shifted its centre of gravity, but functioned according to the same basic mechanisms from the beginning (Wallerstein). In view of the complexity and variability of the underlying pattern, the notion of a configuration or a constellation would seem more appropriate than that of a project or a system. In more detailed terms, the phenomenon in question is a combination of heterogeneous elements and divergent lines of development that are only partly subsumed under a common denominator or coordinated within a coherent framework. The interconnected structures of a capitalist and industrial mode of production, a system of nation-states and an international market constitute dominant components of the modern configuration and a formative framework of modernizing processes. In the historical context they are inseparable from a cultural and political transformation that creates both preconditions for their development and premises for alternative perspectives.
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