Purpose
To examine whether indigenous critiques of globalization and critical theories of modernity are compatible, and how they can complement each other so as to engender more realistic theories of modern society as inherently constructive and destructive, along with practical strategies to strengthen modernity as a culturally transformative project, as opposed to the formal modernization processes that rely on and reinforce modern societies as structures of social inequality.


Methodology/approach
Comparison and assessment of the foundations, orientations, and implications of indigenous critiques of globalization and the Frankfurt School’s critical theory of modern society, for furthering our understanding of challenges facing human civilization in the twenty-first century, and for opportunities to promote social justice.


Findings
Modern societies maintain order by compelling individuals to subscribe to propositions about their own and their society’s purportedly “superior” nature, especially when compared to indigenous cultures, to override observations about the de facto logic of modern societies that are in conflict with their purported logic.


Research implications
Social theorists need to make consistent efforts to critically reflect on how their own society, in terms of socio-historical circumstances as well as various types of implied biases, translates into research agendas and propositions that are highly problematic when applied to those who belong to or come from different socio-historical contexts.


Originality/value
An effort to engender a process of reciprocal engagement between one of the early traditions of critiquing modern societies and a more recent development originating in populations and parts of the world that historically have been the subject of both constructive and destructive modernization processes.

background

/pdf/theorizing-modern-society-as-an-inverted-reality-how-mkyta05ge2.pdf

The Crisis of Industrial Statism and the Collapse of the Soviet Union

Citations

Theorizing Modern Society as an Inverted Reality: How Critical Theory and Indigenous Critiques of Globalization Must Learn From Each Other

Related Papers (5)

Politics, Paradigms, and Intelligence Failures: Why So Few Predicted the Collapse of the Soviet Union

Soviet Communism from Reform to Collapse

Ideology and the collapse of the Soviet system : a critical history of Soviet ideological discourse

A Soviet Postmortem: Philosophical Roots of the 'grand Failure'

Soviet ideological discourse and Perestroika