Social Dialectics

Civilisations and Social Theory takes as its starting point the present as the most decisive period of the transformation of the world since Europe's rise to hegemony in the fifteenth century. If we are adequately to comprehend our times, the author argues, it is necessary to adopt a cross-cultural perspective based on the historical dialectical method and following the path of meaningful comparativism. From this perspective the book provides a detailed critique of Orientalism. The notion of “the Orient” is reassessed and its usefulness reasserted against such operational concepts as the “Third world” and the “Underdeveloped South.”