Interdependence: Alternative for the Twenty-First Century?

The last two chapters have elaborated the interdependent approach, first conceptualizing it, then relating examples of its cultural manifestations. We now turn to examine the potential significance of the interdependent mode for contemporary problems we—collectively—face at the global level. Instead of viewing the interdependent mode as a mere empirical descriptor of happiness and well-being across East Asia, in this chapter we gesture to its potential import globally. The crux of our argument is that WEIRD globalization has placed a heavy burden on contemporary youth, encouraging forms of subjectivity, development, and well-being that are difficult, if not impossible, to sustain in the contemporary economic and environmental climate. In the search for alternatives that can respond to these challenges—most of all, the sustainability imperative—we present emerging evidence that underscores the potential of the interdependent approach, not just for East Asia but globally. In this way, we advance the discussion from ‘alternatives to us’ to ‘alternatives for us’ (Geertz, 1973), resisting a relativist argument in favor of a pragmatic search for new solutions to shared problems. We also address temporal change in this chapter, resisting an a-historical, cultural essentialist reading of interdependence. Cultural change is constantly unfolding, and our role—at least as we see it—is to attempt to shape that change in a pragmatically useful direction in the face of an uncertain twenty-first century.