In many Asian societies, the process of modernization often took place in a rapid and highly compressed fashion - not over centuries, as had happened in most Western societies, but in several decades. Focusing on South Korea and other Asian countries, this book presents a critical account of compressed modernity and its key structural risks. These include endemic political crises, distorted industrial governance, widespread labor displacement, worsening intellectual and cultural dependency, rampant environmental and physical hazards, and even abrupt demographic meltdown.