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The second modern condition? Compressed
modernity as internalized reflexive
cosmopolitization1
bjos_1321 444..464
Chang Kyung-Sup
Abstract
Compressed modernity is a civilizational condition in which economic, political,
social and/or cultural changes occur in an extremely condensed manner in respect
to both time and space, and in which the dynamic coexistence of mutually dispar-
ate historical and social elements leads to the construction and reconstruction of a
highly complex and fluid social system. During what Beck considers the second
modern stage of humanity, every society reflexively internalizes cosmopolitanized
risks. Societies (or their civilizational conditions) are thereby being internalized
into each other, making compressed modernity a universal feature of contempo-
rary societies.This paper theoretically discusses compressed modernity as nation-
ally ramified from reflexive cosmopolitization, and, then, comparatively illustrates
varying instances of compressed modernity in advanced capitalist societies,
un(der)developed capitalist societies, and system transition societies. In lieu of a
conclusion, I point out the declining status of national societies as the dominant
unit of (compressed) modernity and the interactive acceleration of compressed
modernity among different levels of human life ranging from individuals to the
global community.
Keywords: Compressed modernity; globalization; reflexive cosmopolitization; unit
of modernity
1. Introduction
Most of the main impetuses for social and economic transformations in the
new century do not differentially or exclusively apply to certain limited
groups of nations. Consider the following: global free trade and financializa-
tion, corporate deterritorialization and transnationalized production, global-
ized labour use and class struggle, globalized (or globally coerced by the
IMF, etc.) policy consultation and formulation, informatization and
Chang Kyung-Sup (Department of Sociology, Seoul National University) (Corresponding author email: changks@snu.ac.kr)
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010 ISSN 0007-1315 print/1468-4446 online.
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden,
MA 02148, USA on behalf of the LSE. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01321.x
The British Journal of Sociology 2010 Volume 61 Issue 3
cyberspace, globally orchestrated bioscientific manipulation of life forms
(to include human bodies gradually), borderless ecological and epidemiologi-
cal hazards, transnational demographic realignments (i.e., migration of
labour, spouses, children), cosmopolitanized arts and entertainments, and,
not least critically, globally financed and managed regional wars. There are
no permanent systematic hierarchies, sequences or selectivities by which dif-
ferent groups of nations – whether at different levels of development, in
different regions or of different races – are exposed to these new civiliza-
tional forces in mutually exclusive ways. Wanted or not, they are every
nation’s concern because they are structurally enmeshed with the new civi-
lization process Ulrich Beck calls ‘reflexive cosmopolitization’. And the civi-
lizational condition thereby shared across the globe is called ‘second
modernity’.
Recent world history seems to dictate that surviving, let alone benefiting
from, these new civilizational forces requires every nation to actively inter-
nalize them. Isolationist efforts – whether spoken in terms of trade protec-
tionism, religious fundamentalism or media and internet control – are readily
subjected to international moral condemnations (in particular by neoliber-
als). In fact, accepting or refusing these forces remains beyond willful politi-
cal or social choice because they are globally reflexive – that is, compulsively
occurring through ‘the autonomized dynamism of (second) modernization’
across national borders (Beck 1994: 5). Rephrasing this issue in terms of
involved risk, Beck emphatically indicates the arrival of ‘world risk society’
as follows:
To the extent that risk is experienced as omnipresent, there are only three
possible reactions: denial, apathy or transformation. The first is largely
inscribed in modern culture, the second resembles post-modern nihilism,
and the third is the ‘cosmopolitan moment’ of world risk society (Beck 2006:
331).
At the level of each national society, the forces of reflexive cosmopolitiza-
tion described above have been and need to be incorporated head-on in order
to maintain civilizational integrity as well as material and physical stability.
Through this process, societies (or their civilizational conditions) are being
internalized into each other, thereby making compressed modernity – a form of
modernity I have to date been analysing in respect to externally oriented and
rapidly overtaking modernizers in (pre-crisis) East Asia – become a univer-
sal feature of national societies in the second modern world (Chang 1999,
2010a). In the current paper, this thesis will be systematically discussed in the
concrete historical contexts of nations at varying levels of development and
modernization.
I will begin by briefly introducing the concept/theory of compressed moder-
nity, and then proceed to theoretically discuss the new stage of compressed
The second modern condition? 445
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modernity as nationally ramified from reflexive cosmopolitization. In the main
analysis,I will comparatively illustrate varying instances of compressed moder-
nity in advanced capitalist societies, un(der)developed capitalist societies, and
(from socialist to capitalist) transition societies. Finally, I will discuss the
declining status of national societies as the dominant unit of (compressed)
modernity and indicate the interactive acceleration of compressed modernity
among various different levels of human life (namely, the globe, world regions,
subnational localities, families, individuals as well as national societies).
2. Compressed modernity and its cosmopolitan turn: universalization of
compressed modernity under reflexive cosmopolitization
Compressed modernity is a civilizational condition in which economic, politi-
cal, social and/or cultural changes occur in an extremely condensed manner in
respect to both time and space, and in which the dynamic coexistence of
mutually disparate historical and social elements leads to the construction and
reconstruction of a highly complex and fluid social system.2Compressed
modernity can be manifested at various levels of human existence – i.e.,
personhood, family, residential community, secondary organizations, urban
spaces, societal units (including civil society, nation, etc.), and, not least impor-
tantly, the global society. At each of these levels, people’s lives need to be
managed intensely, intricately, and flexibly in order to remain normally inte-
grated with the rest of society.
Figure I schematically shows that compressed modernity is composed of five
specific dimensions that are constituted interactively by two axes of time/space
and condensation/compression. The time facet includes both physical time
(point, sequence and amount of time) and historical time (era, epoch and
phase).The space facet includes physical space (location and area) and cultural
space (place and region). As compared to physically standardized abstract
time–space, era-place serves as a concrete framework for constructing and/or
accommodating an actually existing civilization. Condensation/Abridgement
refers to the phenomenon whereby the physical process required for the
movement or change between two time points (eras) or between two locations
(places) is abridged or compacted (Dimensions [I] and [II] respectively).
Compression/Complication refers to the phenomenon that diverse compo-
nents of multiple civilizations that have existed in different areas and/or places
coexist in a certain delimited time–space, and influence and change each other
(Dimensions [III] and [IV] respectively). The phenomena generated in these
four dimensions, in turn, interact with each other in complicated ways and
further generate different social phenomena (Dimension [V]).
The problem of time–space condensation was also presented as a
core subject in David Harvey’s discussion of Western modernism and
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© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010 British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
postmodernism (Harvey 1980).As compared to Harvey’s view that time–space
condensation, at the global scale, accompanies the accumulation crisis of capi-
talism at each stage and the aggressive effort to overcome it, the time–space
condensation and compression in compressed modernity at various other (as
well as global) levels of human existence reflect much more diverse back-
grounds, factors, and initiators. In addition, the phenomena argued by main
theorists of postcolonialism (such as cultural ‘hybridity’,‘syncrecity’, etc.) can
also be included in time–space compression (See Ashcroft, Griffiths andTiffin
2002). However, it needs to be pointed out that the breadth of cultures and
institutions that are subjected to compression here is much wider than that
suggested by postcolonialism, including even postmodern and global elements.
The concept of compressed modernity was first introduced to account for
the unique civilizational condition of contemporary South Korea which,on the
one hand, has undergone full-scale capitalist industrialization, economic
growth, urbanization, proletarianization (i.e., the transformation of peasants
into industrial workers), and democratization within unprecedentedly short
periods, and, on the other hand, still manifests distinctly traditional and/or
indigenous characteristics in many aspects of personal, social,and political life.
South Korea’s remarkable civilizational episode has been richly illustrated by
the now globally popular Korean dramas and movies, often dubbed ‘Korean
wave’ (hallyu). Not coincidentally, the concept/theory of compressed moder-
nity is heavily utilized in a rapidly increasing body of international research on
South Korean popular culture.3
Figure I: Five dimensions of compressed modernity
Time (Era) Space (Place)
Condensation/Abridgement [ I ] [ II ]
[ V ]
Compression/Complication [ IV ]
[ III ]
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© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
Needless to say, the above civilizational experiences and characteristics are
not entirely unique to South Korea but have been shown or are being shown
in many other formerly or currently late developing societies. Furthermore, as
explained in the subsequent sections of this paper, mostWestern countries and
virtually all state-socialist countries went through some analogous processes
for the sake of early modernization. In particular, such Western experiences
were comprehensively discussed by many so-called classical sociologists,
including Emile Durkheim, Ferdinand Tönnies, etc.
Most recently, during what is called the ‘second modern’ (Beck and Grande
2010) or ‘high modern’ (Giddens 1990) stage of humanity, compressed moder-
nity has increasingly become a rather universal feature of contemporary
national societies. In order to survive, let alone benefit from, the powerful
forces accompanying second modernity – ranging from global free trade and
financialization to borderless ecological and epidemiological hazards – each
national society has to directly face these same forces in its economic and other
management.4In fact, wanted or not,they have already become every nation’s
concern through ‘reflexive cosmopolitization’ – namely, the ‘autonomized’
process of cyclically proliferating risks (as well as opportunities) across the
globe on the basis of rather impulsively judged and executed activities by
various supposedly rational or reflective agents of modernity. Through this
process, national societies (or their civilizational conditions) are being inter-
nalized into each other, thereby making compressed modernity a universal
feature of national societies in the second modern world.
3. Variations of compressed modernity as internalized reflexive
cosmopolitization
Under reflexive cosmopolitization (of the world risk society), second moder-
nity becomes ubiquitous, albeit with very diverse motives, processes, extents,
and consequences. Relatively speaking, advanced capitalist societies may be
characterized by ‘autonomous second modernity’ in that most of the driving
forces of scientific-technical-cultural inputs and political-economic interests
for radicalized reflexivity originate from their own intent and power. By com-
parison, late developing and underdeveloped capitalist societies and (formerly
socialist) transition societies may be characterized more often by ‘second
modernity by dependency’. Such societies become subjected to risks of radi-
calized reflexivity largely due to their political and/or economic subordination
to advanced nations and global actors (such as transnational business) or as a
result of their own efforts at learning or seeking assistance and cooperation
from them.
Societies of relatively autonomous second modernity may, in turn, be dif-
ferentiated in terms of earlier systemic characteristics of first modernity – i.e.,
448 Chang Kyung-Sup
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liberal, social democratic, and developmental societies.5The processes, natures,
and consequences of second modernization may involve potential differences
(as well as similarities) associated with such systemic characteristics. Similarly,
societies of relatively dependent second modernity, in turn, may be differen-
tiated in terms of varying experiences of first modernity vis-à-vis traditionality,
and systemic complexities concerning socialist vis-à-vis capitalist institutions.
This latter group of second modern societies constitutes an overwhelming
majority of nations in the world. Their internal diversities are beyond any easy
classification. Nevertheless, they are commonly characterized by a partial real-
ization of second modernity (because of the protracted existence of pre-
modern, first-modern, socialist-modern components). Such partially realized
second modernity can sometimes produce devastating impacts due to its struc-
tural dissonance with indigenous social orders and principles.
Relatively dependent second modern societies may also be characterized in
terms of (cosmopolitanized) compressed modernity. However, relatively
autonomous second modern societies can also take on compressed modernity
to the extent that they are subject to cosmopolitanized risks as well as oppor-
tunities associated with relatively dependent second modern societies. In sum,
the internalization of cosmopolitanized risks takes place both in relatively
autonomous and relatively dependent second modern societies, so that com-
pressed modernity becomes inseparable from reflexive cosmopolitization and
thereby ubiquitous as well. Moreover, given that such cross-influencing takes
place in a cosmopolitanized process of reflexivity, a virtual simultaneity char-
acterizes the temporal relationship between second modernity and com-
pressed modernity.
It is however important to examine to what extent compressed modernity
differentially impacts on relatively autonomous and relatively dependent
second modern societies. Relatively autonomous second modern societies can
be characterized by low-order compressed modernity. This is because the usual
impacts on them from dependent second modern societies (through special-
ized trade, international migration, cross-border pollution, etc.) are likely to be
more indirect, contained, monitored, and thus manageable (or presently tol-
erable) than their impacts in the opposite direction (through selectively free
trade, transnational organization of production, financial invasion, neoliberal
structural adjustment programmes, bioscientific manipulation of local agricul-
ture, cultural-ideological framing, etc.).6As such, dependent second modern
societies can be characterized by high-order compressed modernity. In
Western societies under low-order compressed modernity, the modern
cultural-institutional-technological configurations tend to be less compressed
because they have more often evolved from the internal (endogenous) histori-
cal processes with the external influences incorporated in a carefully managed
manner; whereas in non-Western societies under high-order compressed
modernity, the corresponding configurations tend to be more compressed
The second modern condition? 449
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because they have more often been superimposed, borrowed or adapted
instantly from outside with the internal civilizational elements subjugated
willingly or unwillingly. In the latter, the suddenness and involuntariness of
second modernity and its conflictual relations with indigenous interests and
values, despite its globalized context, do not fundamentally differ from the
classic situation of colonial modernity. Terrorism appears to be an extremist
effort at bypassing such asymmetrical relations, whereas military invasion is
not infrequently used in order to reinforce the asymmetry.7However, it is also
true that such asymmetry is becoming increasingly meaningless because the
magnitude of the impact of relatively dependent second modern societies on
relatively autonomous second modern societies is growing at an unprec-
edented speed.
4. Reflexive cosmopolitization and compressed modernity in advanced
capitalist societies
4.1 The historical nature of early modernization
European modernization was a fairly diverse and uneven process across
various sections of the continent.8The post-WWII portrayal of (Western)
Europe as a set of institutionally stable and economically affluent units of
modernity has often been arbitrarily extrapolated into the regional past his-
tories, so that the arduous efforts of most European societies – many of them
yet to be consolidated into independent or unified nation–states – to physically
survive the aggressions of a handful of pioneer modernizers and to catch up
with them by expeditiously learning their technological, economic, and politi-
cal know-how have remained insufficiently recognized (see Hobsbawm and
Ranger 1992). The fierce intra-regional competition and rivalry embedded in
European modernization was critically responsible for the two world wars
fought over the politico-military (and civilizational) hegemony of the region.
For most European nations, modernity was a nationalist international project
involving both civilizational condensation and compression amid plural
sources of new knowledge, culture, and power.That is, compressed modernity
has characterized the civilizational nature of most European societies since the
late eighteenth century.9Furthermore, the transcontinental political, economic
and demographic expansion of Western Europe into America and Oceania led
to an overnight transplantation of modernity while indigenous nations in these
regions were completely subdued or almost exterminated. In the long run,
however, various crises of capitalist modernity as well as domestic and inter-
national socialist influences induced different national and regional reactions,
which then would be politically consolidated into the two contrasting regimes
of political economy and social policy, namely the Anglo-American liberal
(and neoliberal) system and the North European social democratic system.
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The non-European ‘catching-up’ modernizers, particularly in Asia, have
been engaged in the same nationalist international project of modernity
through intercontinental (and interracial) transactions of commodities, tech-
nologies,scientific and cultural knowledge, and social institutions. The mercan-
tile nationalist motivation has been most distinct among these Asian
modernizers,who have shown an impressive capacity for intercultural learning
as well as traditional organizational rehabilitation.10 The so-called develop-
mental states in East Asia have proved to be both the most forceful vehicle of
compressed capitalist development and the most tenacious conveyer of
neotraditionalist democracy centered on political and social familism (see
Chang 2010a). Furthermore, the ‘Cold War liberalism’ in East Asia, orches-
trated by the USA against the neighbouring communist superpowers, ideo-
logically enshrined (and helped to transplant) capitalist modernity and
politically guarded the neotraditionalist authoritarian regimes in the region.
4.2 Compressed modernity in advanced capitalist societies as internalized
reflexive cosmopolitization
As David Harvey insightfully indicates, the spatial integration and temporal
condensation of political economic and cultural activities on the global scale
already became a generic feature of capitalist modernity in the early twentieth
century, and has intensified to such an extent that national societies have
increasingly become obsolete as units of self-contained modernity.11 However,
since nation–states continue to be the dominant regulatory unit of economic
life and sociopolitical citizenship, it is still epistemologically justifiable to con-
ceive of national-level modernity (or modernities) whether it is endogenously
shaped or not. In fact, as explained above, even Western modernity has never
been a self-contained evolutionary experience for most countries in the region.
Nevertheless, the unprecedented global velocity of time/space condensation
and compression has forced even advanced capitalist nations into such chaotic
civilizational conditions as to crucially debilitate various technological instru-
ments and social institutions of national modernity. This roughly corresponds
to what Beck seems to consider the second modern condition under cosmo-
politanized reflexivity.
Substantively, late or second modernity in advanced capitalist nations has
been characterized by such diverse tendencies as deindustrialization (multi-
national relocation of industrial production), corporate deterritorialization
(transnationalization of business), informatization, national and global fin-
ancialization, knowledge trading, industrial scientization (NT, BT, ICT),
bio-engineering, international ecological incursion and governance, post-
rationalist and transnational cultural production, cosmopolitization of class
relations and civil activism, cosmopolitan engagement in regional wars, tran-
snational demographic realignments (i.e., migration of labour, children,
The second modern condition? 451
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spouses), religious pluralism, etc.12 Whilst a detailed description of these ten-
dencies is not feasible here, it is safe to say that none of them can be effectively
accommodated or countered by national societies as mutually independent
entities. That is, second modernity is a wild world of borderless civilizational
experimentations and inestimable social interdependencies. Despite this,
however, most nation–states have still tried to actively manage such experi-
mentations and interdependencies for the sake of their exclusive national
interests. This has led to a seemingly universal process of internalization of
reflexive cosmopolitization, thereby engendering compressed second moder-
nity in each national society.
As statist political economists have shown, however, some states have been
exceptionally successful in economically riding the tide of second modernity
(see Weiss 2010). For instance, remote nations such as Iceland and Ireland
suddenly became global star economies mainly on the basis of global
financialization. Even the USA once appeared to have regained its economic
hegemony by manipulating its financial leverages internationally. In the infor-
mation and communication industry, Finnish and South Koreans have dwarfed
traditional industrial powerhouses such as Japan,the USA, and Germany. The
USA, on the other hand, has aggressively pursued the bio-engineering of
agriculture in order to reinforce their dominance in the world’s grain and meat
markets.All these late capitalist achievements, however, have been accompa-
nied by devastating incidents of economic, social and ecological crises. Most
symbolically, the 2008–9 global economic crisis saw the near financial collapse
of Iceland, Ireland and the USA.
In spite of mutually diverse configurations and achievements of second
modernity amongst advanced capitalist nations, they have all collaborated in
attempting to engage the rest of the world in this new phase of capitalist
modernity. This attests to their firm self-conviction as the pacesetters of second
modernity. This group of advanced capitalist nations has been able to fully
utilize both old global institutions (such as the IMF, etc.) and newer ones (such
as the WTO, etc.) in order to restructure the world and extract maximum profit
from both the existing and newer sources. The rampant expansion of global
inequalities and socio-ecological hazards since the late twentieth century has
therefore come as no surprise to these nations.13
As a result of the same historical process, however, the rest of the world has
suddenly become part of the basic economic, social, cultural, and ecological
fabric of the advanced capitalist nations. Ironically, under the chronic pressure
of un(der)employment and insufficient income, workers in deindustrialized
capitalist societies have become the main consumers of the industrial com-
modities produced in newly industrializing countries. The price competitive-
ness of these commodities is often based upon the use of hazardous materials
and technologies as well as socially problematic labour relations.14 The demo-
graphic reproductive squeeze in European and, more recently, East Asian
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capitalist countries has been complemented by the sustained influx of various
forms of temporary and permanent migrants from neighbouring poor coun-
tries, whose presence entails the multicultural and multiethnic reconfiguration
of the societies concerned.15 The postmodern and/or post-rationalist turn in
Western academia,art, and literature has been accompanied by a strong inflow
of theories and philosophies from the hitherto intellectual and cultural
peripheries.16 The industrial divestment by local business in advanced capitalist
countries has sometimes been accompanied by corporate takeover or new
industrial investment by the capital from developing countries as well as
competing developed countries.17 All these tendencies clearly attest to the
critical fact that, under second modernity, advanced capitalist societies increas-
ingly experience the civilizational internalization of hitherto peripheral others
and thereby become compressed modern.
5. Reflexive cosmopolitization and compressed modernity in
un(der)developed societies
5.1 The colonial and postcolonial conditions of modernity
For most Third World countries, modernity initially happened as an interna-
tional political incident. Whether by partial but coercive economic and social
incursions or the complete colonial occupation by Western imperialist forces,
Third World countries came to confront modernity as a totally alien civiliza-
tional entity under which their indigenous systems of politics,economy, society,
and culture were suddenly reconceived as obsolete or unjust. For Third World
societies, modernity was therefore to be achieved by radically breaking away
from their past rather than by gradually building upon it.The Western colonial
rulers, while inculcating and reinforcing such defeatist historical perspectives
on the minds of colonized people, pursued the modernization of Westerners, by
Westerners, and for Westerners in their unilaterally declared new territories.
Local figures, hired or utilized by colonizers for various auxiliary modern
organizations and professions, remained politically and culturally disarticu-
lated from the rest of their nation, so that their marginal positions often
induced them to try to existentially vindicate themselves by practicing or
demonstrating exaggerated versions of modernity in a theatre-like social
context (see Geertz 1973).
On liberation, unless it was accompanied by anti-colonial or anti-feudal
social revolution, many of these former colonial functionaries or collabora-
tors were promoted into the political and cultural leadership of the newly
independent nations and then unequivocally embarked upon a process of
modernization oriented towards the West. Given that the Western colonizers
had left the political systems and economic structures radically altered but
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not modernized, modernity often arose as a substantively justifiable nation-
al(ist) project. However, modernization as a national project led by the
former colonial collaborators was self-defeating because their vested mate-
rial interests tended to preserve: first, the structural dependencies of their
only nominally independent nations on the West; and, second, the local struc-
tures of inequality interwoven with such (neocolonial) dependencies. Soon
modernization became narrowly redefined as (capitalist) economic develop-
ment or, more precisely, as economic catch-up. As a result, the political and
social ingredients of modernity would be compromised in accordance with
various versions of Third World particularism in modernization and devel-
opment such as Rostow’s developmental stage theory and Huntington’s
functional authoritarianism thesis (Rostow 1959; Huntington 1968). Con-
densed economic development, as a component of compressed modernity,
became an almost universalized national goal. Consequently, the actual pat-
terns of modernity in the postwar Third World have been shaped by the
everyday practices in political governance, social mobilization and control
and industrial management executed or justified for such economic devel-
opment.18 (As discussed below, the Cold War intervention by the USA and
its allies further reinforced this developmentally-excused distortion of
modernity.) The worst historical tragedy in the modern world is that, despite
the sacrifice of political and social goals, economic development at meaning-
ful levels and for sustained periods has been achieved only by a tiny minority
of (former) Third World nations.
5.2 Compressed modernity in un(der)developed societies as internalized
reflexive cosmopolitization
Despite the protracted developmental failures of most Third World nations
(and, for that matter, their failures in the national project of first or classic
modernity), these nations have not been unaffected by the radical new world
of second modernity. Instead, an all-encompassing process of civilizational
transformation has most directly and manifestly drawn un(der)developed
nations into the vortex of second modernity. This process has been further
accelerated by global neoliberal economic restructuring. As an interesting
development, the concepts of modernization and modernity, much refuted in
both un(der)developed and developed nations since the 1970s, have suddenly
been relinquished in the recent global interactions between them. Paradoxi-
cally, this came to relieve the developed world of its hitherto noisily publicized
duty of guiding and supporting the modernization project of less developed
nations. Neither economic modernization nor industrial self-reliance is pub-
licly encouraged anymore for un(der)developed nations in the global
North–South interactions and dialogues.19 In this context, Latin American ISI
(import substitution industrialization) has been abandoned significantly, and
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even African subsistence farming has been sacrificed seriously (for export
agriculture). Local processes of ‘learn-and-practice’ industrialization have
been replaced by direct industrial and financial investment by advanced
capitalist economies. At the same time, in order to reduce the risk of such
financial operations to themselves,advanced capitalist countries have, through
the so-called ‘Washington consensus’, disciplined un(der)developed nations
into becoming responsible debtors.20 Moreover, new economic initiatives
linked to various monopolistic/oligopolistic commodities based upon not-yet-
vindicated scientific, technological, and financial experiments have been
imposed upon un(der)developed nations under the terms of global free trade
(i.e., the WTO system).21 Interestingly, albeit tragically, the neoliberal propen-
sity to subordinate all political, social, cultural, and ecological concerns to
economic interests has intensified the existing chronic imbalances between
economic and non-economic concerns in un(der)developed nations. Through
this economically skewed and politically ungoverned process of globalization,
each un(der)developed country has become a cosmopolitan arena for late
modern political economic interests and commercialized social and cultural
relations – another ostensible instance of compressed (second) modernity as
reflexive cosmopolitization.
It appears quite instructive that the sudden change of heart by the USA and
its allies concerning the modernization project of (capitalist) un(der)devel-
oped countries happened at a critical juncture of Cold War politics. By the
early 1980s, the economic and social sustainability of the socialist systems
across the world became highly questionable, even to many socialist political
leaders themselves, including Mikhail Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping. The
internal systemic failure of socialist modernity induced the leader states of
the capitalist bloc to seriously reconsider the political utility of subsidizing the
capitalist modernization process of numerous client nations.22 In retrospect,
the Cold War was another global regime of modernity, in which political and
ideological space for an autonomously reflective (not reflexive!) pursuit of
modernity was flatly denied to most Third World countries. The capitalist
modernity recommended by the West was a ready-made civilizational system,
and its local realization – in an extremely condensed fashion – was strategically
supervised and supported by the West as an effort to curb the international
political expansion of socialist influences. In this way, the American influence
on local politics exacerbated the already acute rigidity of the Third World’s
illiberal capitalism and thereby incurred endemic anti-American sentiment.
As the global Cold War drew to a close, such paternalistic political support for
the (condensed) modernization project of many Third World countries was
instantly terminated, giving way instead to an aggressively new but underre-
flective paradigm of global neoliberal economic restructuring. In this sense,
the neoliberal restructuring of Third World political economies is a post-Cold
War regime of cosmopolitanized reflexivity in economic (mis)management.
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Interestingly, most of the former Cold War foes of the USA have ended up
volunteering to engage in such cosmopolitanized reflexivity in their post-
socialist transitions.
6. Reflexive cosmopolitization and compressed modernity in
transition societies
6.1 Socialist modernization
State socialism, focused around planned heavy industrialization,was a modern
system of condensed economic development based upon the politically dic-
tated maximum mobilization of national resources into producer-goods
industries.In most state-socialist countries, the historical establishment of such
political economic systems, in turn, was a highly condensed, top-down process
of copying or emulating the Soviet model. This was in clear contrast to earlier
social revolutions in which the carefully crafted alliance between local grass-
roots interests and communist ideals and strategies had enabled a self-
reflective and indigenously propelled process of social and political
transformation. Whether supported by the local grassroots or not, the state-
socialist economic systems initially proved to be extremely successful in pro-
ducing desirable outcomes in industrialization and output growth.These initial
successes in economic performance of state-socialist countries gave the USA
and its capitalist allies a serious cause for political concern, thus intensifying
the civilizational rivalry between socialist and capitalist modernity. In the long
run, however, this state of economic and social affairs was not sustainable.
Ironically, it was the frontrunning state-socialist countries that first had to
confront structural economic depression and social demoralization. In fact,
virtually no other state-socialist countries managed to avoid the structural
economic and social crisis arising from the built-in failures of the endlessly
self-reflexive command economic system.
6.2 Compressed modernity in transition societies as internalized reflexive
cosmopolitanization
After fierce internal ideological and political struggles, China and the Soviet
Union openly embarked on the system transition to the market economy (and,
in the Russian case,to representative democracy as well). Subsequently, almost
all other socialist countries followed suit, seemingly completing the process of
(capitalist) reflexive cosmopolitization. As in the earlier transition to state
socialism, the system transition (or reform) to a market economy has been a
highly condensed process of replicating the existing institutions and practices
of advanced capitalist societies. Industrial capitalism has suddenly become a
456 Chang Kyung-Sup
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010 British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
desirable goal for what were former ideological adversaries. Such systemic
changes have, however, been plagued by the following three types of inherent
risks: risks intrinsic to any capitalist or market economic system; risks ensuing
from the gross unfamiliarity with and/or ideological–emotional antipathy
towards a capitalist or market economic system on the part of (former) social-
ist citizens; and risks associated with the poor resource endowment of citizens
and enterprises due to chronic economic depression.23 If, in addition, these
risks are exacerbated by political instabilities or corruption (as has been the
case in numerous transition societies), the human suffering and social costs
involved would be devastating for the basic social fabric of the nations
concerned. Some liberal – and thus radical in the context of transition political
economies – Western advisors paradoxically considered these complex risks as
the primary justification for recommending a ‘big bang’ approach which
would, as a form of shock therapy, hopefully minimize the duration of institu-
tional uncertainty and human suffering.24 Unfortunately, in Russia (and many
other neighbouring transition societies), the big bang approach has only ampli-
fied the above risks, whereas in China (and, more recently, Vietnam), the
gradualist approach has allowed a much more stable progress toward material
affluence and ideological–institutional rebirth. The Chinese case, therefore,
arguably warrants more detailed attention.
China’s gradualist (and thus less condensed) system transition, dubbed
‘reform’ (gaige), has meant the protracted coexistence of socialist, capitalist,
and even (neo)traditionalist components of political economy, thereby impos-
ing an ultra-complex (compressed) modernity on Chinese life.25 Interestingly,
some socialist institutions, practices, and legacies have turned out to be quite
useful for market-based development. These include, for instance, a highly
educated and disciplined labour force being fully utilized for labour-intensive
industrialization, powerful local states orchestrating aggressive yet flexible
programmes of local economic development, the public ownership of scarce
resources (such as land) preventing speculative rent-seeking activities (and
thereby facilitating the rational and fair allocation of economic inputs), the
rigid residential controls between urban and rural areas helping to dampen the
exodus of poor peasants into already job-insufficient cities, etc.26 In spite of
these seemingly accidental advantages of socialist legacies, various negative
impacts and impediments arising from these and other socialist legacies need
to be considered as well. It must also be recognized that, from the very
beginning of reform, China has tried to accommodate the full spectrum of
modern and late modern industries led by Western capital in what they
have designated as ‘special economic zones’ (SEZs or jingjitequ). This could
be called an institutional framework of compartmentalized compressed
modernity. With dreams of possible gold rush-type economic opportunities in
the world’s would-be largest market, capitalist enterprises from the advanced
industrial economies began to flock into offshore Chinese SEZs and, in
The second modern condition? 457
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
response to desperate pleas from other local state units, into various interior
regions. This trend has made China an internally cosmopolitanized economic
entity, directly exposed to both the benefits and risks of the radical new world
economy. Conversely, China’s internationally oriented developmental success
in the post-socialist era, combined with a diverse set of institutional and
sociocultural factors, has exposed the world to both the benefits and risks of
China’s complex modern political economy. It can be argued that the entire
world has become, on the one hand, a perplexed consumer of cheap,functional
but hazardous Chinese products and, on the other hand, an anxious seller
to voracious Chinese buyers of natural resources, technologies, and even
enterprises.
Eastern European countries constitute still another group of post-socialist
(second) modernity societies. Their individual post-socialist transitions, by
and large closer to the Russian big bang approach than to the Chinese gradu-
alist approach, initially required their populations to experience profound
uncertainty and trauma. Their geographic proximity and historical/cultural
connection to Western Europe have instigated a sort of ‘jumpstart’ effect of
(first and second) modernization or development. East Germany, of course,
provides the most direct example of this phenomenon due to its wholesale
economic and social incorporation into West Germany (see Sinn and Sinn
1992). The recent completion of political and economic unionization in
Europe will, no doubt, radically amplify such a jumpstart effect, so that com-
pressed modernity as reflexive cosmopolitization will effectively encompass
another critical world region. Arguably, East Germans’ highly ambivalent
feelings in the post-unification era, as an unfailing index of compressed
modernity, will increasingly become a broader East European phenomenon
in this second modern era.
7. Beyond national (compressed) modernity
The above account of developed, un(der)developed, and post-socialist coun-
tries clearly demonstrates how reflexive cosmopolitization in the second
modern world has ramified varying patterns of national-level compressed
modernity in virtually every corner of the globe. This finding, however,
should be qualified in the following two aspects. First, national society has
rapidly lost its salient status as the unit of modernity, whereas other human
existential domains or levels such as individual, locality, and world region
have become seriously competing units of modernity. Second, and relatedly,
these competing units are also increasingly characterized by compressed
modernity, again in conjunction with reflexive cosmopolitization. These
trends do not, however, imply that national societies or the states which
govern them are reduced to inactivity. In fact, as convincingly indicated by
458 Chang Kyung-Sup
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010 British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
many statist political economists, (second) modern states are entrusted with
ever expanding and challenging functional duties as are individuals, families,
localities, regional blocs, and the world community. Under reflexive cosmo-
politization, the functional relationship between national societies (and
states) and other human existential domains or levels does not remain in a
zero-sum structure, but rather, assumes a dynamic of mutual escalation. Like-
wise, compressed modernities of different existential domains or levels tend
to intensify reciprocally.
These developments are far from difficult to empirically discern. In addi-
tion to the innumerable world conventions held by the United Nations and
UN-affiliated global organizations, back-to-back global summits and govern-
mental conferences are also being held in order to tackle a never ending
series of international economic crises, borderless epidemics, global ecologi-
cal disasters, etc. Through the WTO framework, the political and economic
elites of advanced capitalist countries envision the world as a fully integrated
unit of economic modernity. While world-system thinking, led by Immanuel
Wallerstein, has already taught us that self-contained modernity can only be
meaningfully conceived at the global level, the recent velocity of reflexive
cosmopolitization certainly supports the necessity of probing ‘global moder-
nity’ much more directly, above all, with regard to its increasingly com-
pressed nature.27 Similarly, continents or world regions are intensifying their
status as the basic unit of political economy, culture, and even formal gov-
ernance. The historic launch of the European Union as a formally legalized
unit of political sovereignty, as well as social and economic collaboration, is
certain to accelerate similarly targeted international efforts in other world
regions. This European experience clearly demonstrates that the formal
elevation of world regions as human existential units is not necessarily predi-
cated upon the civilizational homogenization of involved societies. The
extreme economic, sociopolitical, cultural, and even religious diversities
within the European Union will be further complicated through officially
sanctioned reflective and reflexive interactions, engendering new units of
compressed modernity. As emphatically emphasized in the so-called glocal-
ization literature, subnational entities – in particular, traditional localities –
have also been activated as social units of (compressed) modernity. Realizing
that national societies and states are now increasingly ineffective in protect-
ing or promoting the civilizational integrity and material stability of
localities, many of them have reflectively and reflexively embarked upon
self-helping projects with cosmopolitan contents.28 Not coincidentally, many
activist postmodernists have been integral to such local civilizational
initiatives.
What about traditionally private units of human existence,such as individual
and family? Is individualization tantamount to an escape from the (second)
compressed modernity which is ever intensifying at other human existential
The second modern condition? 459
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
units? The answer is to the contrary. The second modern individuality, even
without indulging in the time/space-annihilated cyberspace,is directly exposed
to reflexive cosmopolitization and thus filled with compressed modernity.
People are individually, as well as socially, much busier than before. Individu-
alization, in a contemporarily generic sense, should mean people’s active man-
agement of such individual-level compressed modernity, regardless of their
attitude and performance at other units of life.29 In the same vein,the supposed
family crisis, widely deplored in various parts of the world, is largely an epis-
temological obfuscation, if not a neoliberal conspiracy for arbitrarily blaming
private families (rather than public offices) for the difficulties of children,
elderly, etc.30 Families may be smaller and more flexible than before, but these
attributes are usually the outcome of people’s adaptation efforts in a socio-
historical context which demands that families fulfill ever increasing and inten-
sifying functions. The compact and adaptable nature of family forms and
relations is a requirement for compressed modern family life generalized
under reflexive cosmopolitization. It is no coincidence that East Asians, still
unrivalled familists, have most drastically adjusted family schedules (i.e., mar-
riage age, etc.), sizes, and living arrangements (see Chang 2009b). A pertinent
and poignant example can be seen in the way affluent East Asian fathers have,
in rapidly increasing numbers, become ‘wild geese’, in order to ensure their
children attend the best Western schools without losing maternal care. In order
to cope with the wild tide of globalization, they are aggressively globalizing
their familial living (and studying) arrangements.
8. Conclusion
In today’s rapidly and intricately globalizing world, the driving forces of
radical scientific-technological-cultural inputs and monopolistic political eco-
nomic interests operate across national boundaries without serious obstacles.
The liberal system transition of former state-socialist countries has intensified
the globalizing nature of such inputs and interests. However, as Beck has
persuasively shown, the ecological, material, and sociocultural risks accompa-
nying the latest capitalist offence are not unidirectional (from developed to
less developed nations) any more (see Beck 1999, 2006). Even developed
nations cannot pass up the cosmopolitanized hazards and pressures generated
in the very process of their global economic and political domination over less
developed nations. Managing these challenges, as well as exploiting the asso-
ciated opportunities, by individual nations implies that internalization of cos-
mopolitanized reflexivity takes place both in developed and less developed
(capitalist and post-socialist) nations. In fact, the same is also true of world
regions, local communities, families, and individuals. Such internationalization
of cosmopolitanized reflexivity by individual nations with distinct preexisting
460 Chang Kyung-Sup
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010 British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
civilizational characteristics engenders a new line of compressed modernity
that governs virtually every corner of today’s globe.
(Date accepted: June 2010)
Notes
1. The author is indebted to Professor
Ulrich Beck for inspiring comments and
ideas without which this exploratory theo-
retical work may not have been possible.
Two BJS reviewers also provided numerous
stimulating points. Special thanks are due
to Gabriel Sylvian for excellent editor-
ial assistance. Direct all inquiries to the
author’s email (changks@snu.ac.kr).
2. For a full theoretical and historical
account of compressed modernity, I wrote a
separate article, ‘Compressed Modernity in
Perspective: South Korean Instances and
Beyond’ (Chang 2009a).
3. For instance, see David Martin-Jones
(2007), ‘Decompressing Modernity: South
Korean Time Travel Narratives and the IMF
Crisis.’ The global popularity of South
Korean dramas and movies may not be
unrelated with the trend that, as I try to
elucidate in this paper, compressed moder-
nity is rapidly becoming a cosmopolitanized
phenomenon.
4. See Fine (2010) on financialization,
among other trends.
5. In liberal societies (such as the UK and
the USA) market economic opportunities
(business and labour) and political freedom
have sustained the sovereign status of citi-
zens vis-à-vis the state (mostly in charge of
infrastructure provision and policing). In
social democratic societies (such as Scandi-
navian countries), market economic oppor-
tunities have been complemented by the
political right to state-organized social
protection. In developmental societies (such
as Japan and South Korea), augmentation of
market economic opportunities has been
conceived as the core responsibility of the
state, which in turn has obliged citizens to
mobilize private resources for care and pro-
tection (Chang 2010b).
6. It needs to be pointed out that the
internally derived forces of second moder-
nity are much stronger and diverse for rela-
tively autonomous second modern societies,
so that their compressed modernity intensi-
fies in a different direction.
7. See Beck (2002) for his view on terror-
ism and war in world risk society.
8. A BJS reviewer suggested a different
order of discussing the three regional
contexts of cosmopolitanized compressed
modernity – namely, un(der)developed
societies (and then conceptual/theoretical
remarks on compressed modernity), fol-
lowed by advanced capitalist societies and
transition societies. I totally agree with the
reviewer on a necessity of more fully
explaining compressed modernity in the
concrete historical context of South Korea
(or late yet rapidly catching-up societies in
general), but this has been done in a sepa-
rate work referred to in Note 2 (Chang
2009a). I also hope that my new book,
South Korea under Compressed Modernity
(Chang 2010a) can help readers to compre-
hend the South Korean experiences more
clearly.
9. For a highly suggestive analysis in this
regard, see Bloch ([1935]1991) .
10. It may not be a coincidence that
ancient societies in East Asia – i.e., China
and Vietnam – have ultimately come back as
effective modernizers.
11. Harvey’s (1980) time/space ‘compres-
sion’ corresponds to ‘condensation’ here.
12. About these diverse components of
globalization or reflexive cosmopolitization,
I refer to Beck (1999; 2006), Turner (1994),
Turner and Khondker (2010), Mittelman
(2000), Mittelman and Othman, eds. (2001),
Jameson and Miyoshi, eds. (1998), etc. For a
highly persuasive and illustrative account of
The second modern condition? 461
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2010British Journal of Sociology 61(3)
Australia’s neoliberal globalization, see
Weiss, Thurbon, and Mathews (2007).
13. Not unrelatedly – that is, due to
deindustrialization, financialization, etc. –
domestic inequalities have also expanded in
many advanced capitalist countries.
14. One of the worst scandals in this
regard involves China’s toxic and/or bogus
commodities. See Chang (2008).
15. Vietnamese brides in South Korean
villages constitute a highly interesting yet
difficult instance. See ‘Baby Boom of Mixed
Children Tests South Korea’ (New York
Times, 28 Nov 2009).
16. Postcolonialism literature has been a
most successful case in this regard (see,
for instance, Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin
2002).
17. China’s aggressive hunt for techno-
logically competitive overseas enterprises
(including IBM) is a particularly noteworthy
example.
18. In successful cases, this may be called
developmental modernity.
19. See Ha-Joon Chang’s (2002) ‘kicking
away the ladder’ argument for a forceful
criticism of this trend.
20. The IMF-led structural readjustment
programs have been the most disturbing
example.
21. American GMO produces are a most
telling case in point.
22. See Cumings (1998; 1999) on the shift-
ing Asia/South Korea–USA relations in this
context.
23. See Chang (2008) for the Chinese case.
24. Some of these Western liberals were
formally appointed as key policy advisors by
the governments of transition countries.
25. Vietnam is a very similar case (see
Masina, 2006). See Chang (2008) for his
analysis of China as a complex risk society
which manifests risk tendencies of highly
diverse time–space dimensions.
26. See Chang (1993) for an analysis of
Chinese rural industrialization focusing on
these unintended consequences of socialism.
27. See Dirlik (2003; 2004) on ‘global
modernity’, and Pieterse (1994) on ‘global-
ization as hybridization’.
28. See Stiglitz (2006) for an economist’s
sympathetic view on such local initiatives
against neoliberal globalization. In many
Third World countries, democratization has
also facilitated this process by nurturing
local political autonomy.
29. See another article by Chang Kyung-
Sup and Song Min-Young in this special
issue of the journal, entitled ‘The Stranded
Individualizer under Compressed Moder-
nity: South Korean Women in Individualiza-
tion without Individualism’.
30. See Chapter 4 in South Korea under
Compressed Modernity (Chang, 2010a).
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