Some Fundamental Questions of Modernity A Comparative Glance at Finland, Japan, and Russia

1. Some Fundamental Questions of ModernityA ComparativeGlance at Finland, Japan, and Russia Göran Therborn University of Cambridge ”ScrutinizingModernities”, Alexander Institute, Helsinki 12.9.2013

2. Modernity: MakingUse of a Concept • Avoiding redundant labelling • Avoidingidiosyncracy: etymologicalrespect • Openinginvestigations A time culture, focusing on the present & orientedtowards a new thisworldlyfuture, questioning/rejecting the authority of the past

3. Breakthroughs of Modernity • Conception of History • Linear , Evolutionary: 18th c. Enlightenment • Cognition • Ancientauthorityrejected: Vesalius, Bacon, Descartes et al : late 16th-early 17th c. • Aesthetics • Partial breaks: Renaissance; Quérelle des anciens et des modernes • Full break, late 19th c.: Baudelaire, Impressionism, Art Nouveau • Economics • Radicalagriculturalimprovement; industrialization • Politics • Re-form & re-volutionturned to the future • Politics of nations, nation-states

4. 4 Major Pathways to CurrentModernity & 2 Major Hybridsby Pattern of Conflict • The European • Internal: the nation/people vs. the prince & (mainstream) aristocracy • The Settler ”New World” • The settler nation vs the motherlandprince & the natives • The Ex-Colonial • The colonizedpeople turning the modern politics of the colonizersagainstthem • ReactiveModernization:Japan, Siam, Abbyssinia • Section of existingeliteimporting national politics to defendtraditionalrealm Hybrids: Russia : European internalism & ReactiveModernization China: Failed RM, part anti-Colonial, part European-typeclasswar

5. EnduringConsequences of the Roads to Modernity I European Internalism ReactiveModernization Conception of the nation Given, Ex-subjects of the realm Leading force of the nation The government & associated (economic) elites Notion of representative government Instrumental: Ensuring social cohesion & state force • Conception of the nation • Constructed, as historicallyrooted in language, culture, experience • Leading force of the nation • The (stratified) people • Notion of representative government • Rights of the people

6. EnduringConsequences of the Roads to Modernity II European Internalism ReactiveModernization Role of religion & the supernatural Re-vitalization of state religion, Reproduction of folk religion & of magicalbeliefs Social relations, (in)equality Marginalization of class Reproduction of existentialinequality (status hierarchy, deference, misogyny) Delimitation of economicinequality for cohesion • Role of religion & the supernatural • Pathtowardsthoroughsecularization & disenchantment • Social relations, (in)equality • Salience of class & classorganization • Pathtowards general equalization

7. Finland on the European Road • F belongs to the Nordic cluster of gradualist, negotiatedpoliticalmodernity(l917-18 civil war an aberration, due to then part of Russian empire in revolution) • Also to the Nordic cluster of class, with strong farmers & limiteddistance popular classes-bourgeoisie • WithinRussia F was a vanguard of modern development, in Nordic region a latecomer to prosperity • Part of the East-Central European variant of national languagedevelopment & change • F wasculturallywellconnected & a Nordic centre of aesthetic modernism: architecture, poetry, design

8. Japan: The Paradigmatic Case of ReactiveModernization The Charter Oath of l868: • “Evil customs of the past shall be abandoned and everything shall be based upon the just laws of Nature. • Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world …” The universalist modern program is then cut down into characteristic Japanese particularism, continuing : • “…so as to strengthen the foundations of Imperial rule.”

9. JapaneseSpecifics of the RM Road • Imperial ambition & capacity • Continuist ”embrace of defeat” • Preocupation with location & identity • Out of Asia, or Leading Asia? • Japanese ”overcoming of modernity”, Nihonjin ron and studies of Japaneseness

10. The Russian Hybrid I. Set-Up • The European Mould • ”The ThirdRome”, late 15th c. Italianarchitects in the Kremlin, 18th-19th c- dynasticintermarriages, upperclassFrancophony • 1st half of l9th c.: the gendarme of Europe • European workingclassmovement • A centre of early 20th c. European art modernism • The Experience of Backwardness • Outside medieval & Renaissance Europe • Overwhelmingrurality • Serfdom & itspull-downsocio-culturaleffects • Bases of European Distanciation • Cultural: Slavicism & OrthodoxChristianity • Spatial: Eurasian bridge

11. The Russian Hybrid II. Consequences • Stalinist, statist RM overtaking the workingclassOctober Revolution • Revolutionaryviolenceadding to violentdynamics of RM • The Khrushcheviteprojectcontinuingcatching up with & overtaking the West - & itsimplodingfailure under Gorbachev • Social meaning of Communismunderdeveloped • Post-Communistamalgamations of pre-revolutionary religion & deference and Sovietbig power institutions & practices • Social reform perspectivelost

12. Prospects: After ModernismI. Current State • Finland • Goalsachieved: Nordic prosperity, independence of Russia, standing in Europe • Lost: frontier of electronics & design • Japan • Achieved: economic world power • Lost: Chance of becoming No. 1 • Russia • Achieved: Return to big power status • Lost: parity with US, & chance of overtaking it

13. Prospects: After ModernismII. Futures • Finland • Possibility of peacefulprosperousperipherywithoutmuchneed of modernism, thoughclouded by the fall/sale of Nokia and the comingstructuraldecline of the pulp & paperindustry • Japan • Difficulties to adapt to old age serenity, blocage of immigration, currentattempt at nationalist growthunlikelysustainability • Improbablebut still conceivableprospect of ”overcomingmodernity”, as a secure, serene, aestheticstationarystate • Russia • Fragile economy, brittlepolitical institutions, clearly in need of somefuturistic modernist social project