In many non-Western contexts, modernization has tended to be equated with Westernization, and consequently with an abandonment of actual indigenous identities and values. this is often glaring within the contemporary historical past of many Asian societies, the place efforts to modernize – spurred on by way of the spectre of international domination – have frequently been followed via made up our minds makes an attempt to stamp nationwide versions of modernity with the emblem of neighborhood authenticity: ‘Asian values’, ‘Chinese characteristics’, a eastern cultural ‘essence’ etc. Highlighting (or exaggerating) institutions among the extra unsettling effects of modernization and alien effect has therefore shaped a part of a method wherein elites in lots of Asian societies have sought to build new types of legitimacy for previous styles of dominance over the hundreds. The equipment of recent structures of mass schooling, usually inherited from colonial rulers, has been only one software in such campaigns of country legitimation.

This ebook provides analyses of quite a number modern initiatives of citizenship formation throughout Asia on the way to establish these concerns and matters so much important to Asian debates over the development of contemporary identities. Its major concentration is on education, but additionally examines different automobiles for citizenship-formation, similar to museums and the net; the function of faith (in specific Islam) in debates over citizenship and identification in yes Asian societies; and the connection among state-centred identification discourses and the adventure of more and more ‘globalized’ elites.

With chapters from a global workforce of members, this interdisciplinary quantity will attract scholars and students of Asian tradition and society, Asian schooling, comparative schooling and citizenship.