Prelude : Japanese uniqueness versus globalization : a reply to Professor Yui

Globalization has come to be regarded as the all-embracing paradigm of modern sociology, generating a battery of concepts relating to mobilities, glocalization, globalophilia, mondialization and ‘the second modernization’ (Beck 2000). In this reply to Professor Yui, I hope to make a distinction that can open up a critical assessment of these theories, namely a distinction between early and late theory, and between early and late globalization. The implication of these two distinctions is that in much globalization theory there is scant respect paid to history. Although these comments are critical of Professor Yui’s argument, I am grateful to him and other Asian social scientists for the attempt to break out of the predominantly Western model of globalization (Turner and Khondker 2010).