"Community and Culture: The Cost of Ascribed Membership"

Speaker:

Prof. Chua Beng Huat
Department of Sociology, Asia Research Institute, National

University of Singapore

Date&Time:

16:00-, February 6 (Fri), 2004

Venue:

Room 307 (the 3th floor, Common building of CSEAS)

Abstract
From the early 1980s, there emerged two intellectual currents in Anglo-American academia; multiculturalism and a new communitarianism. In spite of appearances, both are grounded in liberal individualism. This poses serious questions of the ideas of 'culture' and 'community', which are unavoidably social, can be conceptualized. The difficulties become apparent in the cost of membership to specific cultural groups. In contrast to liberalism, I will attempt to demonstrate that Asian societies begin by privileging the 'social' ontologically and thus may be able to avoid some of the pitfalls of liberal multiculturalism and liberal communitarianism in both theorizing and actual political Practice.