What is it about?
Progressive reform projects have a large amount of different outcomes around the world. The ones that embrace localism, nationalism, and community distinction tend to perform better than internationalist and missionary projects that believe in a common destiny for all of mankind. Looking in particular at Meiji Japan and Kemalist Turkey, we can see how even at the height of western domination the embracing of a progressive nationalism bore real results for those of a reformist persuasion.
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Why is it important?
In the present day we have experienced the overreach of liberal internationalism and its theocratic offshoots such as wokeism. It is often assumed that the only alternative to this ideology is reactionary conservativism. History shows however, that progressive projects can be extremely effective if divorced from grand teleological narratives and are rather embedded into local nationalisms, something that the scholar Mark Ravina refers to as 'Cosmopolitan Chauvinism' when referring to Japanese history- and this concept can be used to examine other nations as well.
Perspectives
History is not linear and cycles are regional rather than global. It was my intention to show that when the world retrenches the future is there for societies who go their own way in an adaptive, rather than reactionary way. In so doing we can see a case both historical and contemporary for divergence offering up opportunities for those interested in structural reform.
Dr Christopher Mott
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Global Woke against Local Progress, May 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004703445_004.
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