융합 시대의 문명론적 진단 (The Coming of Convergence Age: A Civilization Approach)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국사회학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국사회학 / 45권 / 5호 / 1 ~ 24페이지
· 저자명 : 김문조, 김남옥

초록

인류 역사를 초거시적 시각에서 되돌아보면, 미분화 상태에 놓여있던 현상․활동․관념들이 분화나 전문화 과정을 거쳐 날로 작게 나뉘어져 온 “분화의 시대”로 일괄할 수 있다. 그러나 최근에는 지난 날 세계의 변화를 주도해온 분화적 원심력이 융합적 구심력으로 대체되는 반전의 조짐이 나타나고 있다. 이 논문에서는 페르낭 브로델이 강조한 바 있는 장기지속적 시간대를 보다 확장한 초장기적 관점에서 오늘날 세계 도처에서 감지되는 융합 현상들을 개관한 후, 그 맹아적 성격들에 근거해 융합문명의 특성과 의의를 탐지해 보고자 한다.
문명에 관한 접근법은 크게 다음 세 가지로 구분된다; 진보로서의 문명(계몽주의적 문명관), 퇴행으로서의 문명(자연주의/프로이트주의 문명관), 과정으로서의 문명(노베르트 엘리아스의 문명화과정론). 그러나 사회적 상태이자 과정인 문명은 진보적/퇴행적 문명론이 강조하는 전환성과 과정적 문명론이 강조하는 연속성을 동시적으로 포괄하는 패러다임적 접근에 의해 잘 규명될 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 (1) 기존 문명론의 종합적 검토를 통해 단계적 진화 개념을 주축으로 한 ‘패러다임적 문명론’을 정립하고, (2) 그에 입각해 인류의 문명사를 미분화 문명단계(농업문명), 분화 문명단계(산업문명) 및 탈(脫)분화문명 단계(융합문명)로 구분한 후, (3) 복잡성 정도가 임계점을 넘어섰다고 판단되는 융합문명기의 특성과 의의를 행위자연결망이론(actor-network theory)의 통찰에 의거해 고찰한다.

영어초록

By looking back from an extremely long-term perspective, the entire history of mankind until the twentieth century can be described as “the process of differentiation.” Such argument can be found in the works of masters of social thought including Immanuel Kant, Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer and Marx Weber. However, the sign of reversal that substitutes the centripetal force of convergence for the centrifugal force of differentiation appears recently. This paper attempts to examine this mega-trend toward convergence and identifies the characteristics of a new epochal state of ‘convergence civilization.’The approach to civilization is classified as following: (1) “civilization as progress,” an idea of enlightenment, (2) “civilization as degradation,” a Naturalist/Freudian view and (3) “civilization as an ongoing process” as suggested by Norbert Elias. But civilization may be best understood by the paradigmatic perspective that takes into account the process of civilization as a continuum proposed by Elias as well as the idea of transition suggested by progressive and deteriorative approaches. Based upon the paradigmatic framework of civilization dynamic, the human civilization is categorized into three stages: stage of undifferentiated civilization(agricultural civilization), stage of differentiated civilization(industrial civilization) and stage of de-differentiated civilization(convergence civilization).
The convergence civilization, initiated by the development of digital technology that gives rise to a flexible accumulation, decentralization of power, and the rise of multiculturalism and postmodernism, tends not only to have a vital influence on techno-economic aspect, but also on social, cultural, mental, and physical aspects. Due to the dynamic process of high complexity, a convergent society is seen as the prototype of complexity system of high degree of freedom. However, its additional characteristics such as boundlessness, multiplicity, and co-production, make convergent society to go beyond the level of conventional complexity system and move toward a ‘convergence system,’ where link than node, relation than structure, description than explanation, arrangement than causation and hybrid order than harmonious order are highly considered.
The human society has been developing from pre-industrial stage, through industrial stage and up to current post-industrial stage, i.e., the stage of information society. Then, how can we define the trait of ‘post-information society?’ It is explained in George Gilder’s “Telecosm,” Manuel Castells’s “Network Society,” Rolf Jensen and Jim Dator’s “Dream Society,” Daniel Pink’s “Conceptual Age” and Jeremy Rifkin’s “Empathic Civilization.” “Convergent Society” is my answer to the question.
From this point of view, information society that is also labeled as high-tech society, knowledge society, digital society or cyber society, is not entitled to be an independent unit of civilization. It may rather be regarded as a passing guest of human history connecting the industrial civilization of differentiation era with the convergence civilization of de-differentiation era.

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