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Article: The Abdication of the Intellectuals: Sociology, Anthropology, and the Asian Values Debate--or, What Everybody Needed to Know about "Asian Values" That Social Scientists Failed to Point Out.
- Article from:
- SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia
- Article date:
- October 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The "Asian values" debate preceding the 1997 economic set-backs should be seen not only as a lost opportunity for the critical social sciences, but as a failure of nerve -- even responsibility -- especially among sociologists and anthropologists. The debate was framed not by "free intellectuals" but by noted ideologists of various state directorates, not so much to explain as to celebrate and capitalize politically upon the "Asian Miracle". Explanations of accelerating Asian economic performances in terms of "Asian values" entailed an analytical regression, which social scientists should have identified as an insidious return of the "structural functionalism" of the ...