Journal of Travel Literature Studies
JTLS, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp. 65-81.
Print ISSN: 3135-6788; Online ISSN: 3135-6796
Journal homepage: https://www.tlsjournal.com
DOI： https://doi.org/10.64058/JTLS.26.1.04
A Critique of Eurocentrism: From the Paradigmatic Perspective of Western Globalization Studies[1]
Jiajun Tao
Abstract: This study interrogates the constitutive tension between Eurocentrism and its critiques as they manifest within contemporary Western globalization theory and knowledge production. Through a critical engagement with four major paradigms that have shaped Western globalization scholarship since the 1970s—world-systems theory, anti-Eurocentric approaches, the global industrious revolution thesis, and global history as a disciplinary formation—the analysis exposes the persistent conceptual contradictions that structure this discursive field. In response to these problematics, the study advocates for a hermeneutics of civilizational encounter predicated on bidirectional interpretation and mutual learning between civilizations. Such an approach, it is argued, offers a way beyond the epistemological impasse engendered by Eurocentric hegemony in globalization discourse. The inquiry further interrogates the violent character of modern Western civilization, its contemporary project of global integration, and the imperial imaginaries that inform current Western geopolitical thought. It concludes by advancing the possibility of a renewed civilizational form—one grounded in the resources of Chinese civilization and the distinctive patterns and trajectories of Eastern globalization—as an alternative to prevailing Western models.
Keywords: globalization; paradigm; anti-Eurocentrism; civilization
Author Biography: Jiajun Tao, Professor, School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China. Email: taojiajun@bfsu.edu.cn.
Received: 12 Feb 2026 / Revised: 3 Mar 2026 / Accepted: 21 Apr 2026 / Published online: 30 May 2026 / Print published: 30 Sep 2026.
