Modernization theory

About: Modernization theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14641 publications have been published within this topic receiving 232469 citations.

Trajectories of Development: A Test of Ecological-Evolutionary Theory

Abstract: To test a fundamental hypothesis of ecological-evolutionary theory, that technical and economic heritage affects current rates and patterns of development, Third World societies were classified as "industrializing agrarian" or "industrializing horticultural" on the basis of their dominant subsistence technologies prior to sustained contact with industrial societies and industrial technology, and then compared on five basic dimensions: (1) current levels of technological and economic development, (2) informational resources, (3) rates of economic growth, (4) vital rates, and (5) trade dependency. Predicted differences were found on all dimensions. Alternative explanations were explored and rejected, and it was also demonstrated that these differences were not explained by netzwork position in the world economy or by recency of national independence. These findings suggest that the impact of techno-economic heritage on development merits further investigation. What forces determine the trajectories of development of societies in the modem world? Why have some societies been so much more successful than others in achieving economic growth and higher standards of living for their citizens? Various answers have been given to these questions in recent decades. Modernization theorists such as Parsons and Inkeles have stressed the importance of belief systems and values, following the early lead of

The politics of school reform, 1870-1940

Abstract: Was school reform in the decades following the Civil War an upper-middle-class effort to maintain control of the schools? Was public education simply a vehicle used by Protestant elites to impose their cultural ideas upon recalcitrant immigrants? In "The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940," Paul E. Peterson challenges such standard, revisionist interpretations of American educational history. Urban public schools, he argues, were part of a politically pluralistic society. Their growth both in political power and in sheer numbers had as much to do with the demands and influence of trade unions, immigrant groups, and the public more generally as it did with the actions of social and economic elites. Drawing upon rarely examined archival data, Peterson demonstrates that widespread public backing for the common school existed in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. He finds little evidence of systematic discrimination against white immigrants, at least with respect to classroom crowding and teaching assignments. Instead, his research uncovers solid trade union and other working-class support for compulsory education, adequate school financing, and curricular modernization. Urban reformers campaigned assiduously for fiscally sound, politically strong public schools. Often they had at least as much support from trade unionists as from business elites. In fact it was the business-backed machine politicians from San Francisco's William Buckley to Chicago's Edward Kelly who deprived the schools of funds. At a time when public schools are being subjected to searching criticism and when new educational ideas are gaining political support, "The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940" is a timely reminder of the strength and breadth of those groups that have always supported "free" public schools."

Sorcery of Construction and Socialist Modernization: Ways of Understanding Power in Postcolonial Mozambique

Abstract: In this article I examine how rural Mozambicans in the Mueda plateau region experienced the socialist modernization policies of FRELIMO, the anti-colonial guerrilla movement that eventually took power over the postindependence Mozambican state. In interpreting and engaging with the dramatic transformations brought on by FRELIMO socialism, Muedans often drew on the familiar language of sorcery, notwithstanding FRELIMO attempts to banish sorcery-related beliefs and practices. While Muedans sometimes resisted the modernization agenda and sometimes embraced it, they could not make systematic instrumental use of sorcery discourse to pursue strategic ends. Rather, sorcery served them more broadly as a social diagnostics of power relations —one that preserved ways of understanding power that are saturated with ambivalence, [power, postcolonial Africa, sorcery, surveillance, guerrilla war, villagization, modernization]

Chinese Responses to Modernization: A Psychological Analysis

Abstract: In the last one hundred plus years, China, under the impact of modernization, has undergone the most significant change in the past 5,000 years. Modernization is a continuous process of protest and change. At each stage of modernization, outcomes may be regarded as the result of complex strategies and responses to those demands. This paper will address the strategies and responses that Chinese have adopted in their attempt to deal with the pressure and challenge of modernization. As a background to understanding these strategies and responses, the following four perspectives will be delineated. First, my perspective is mainly at the micro level, but I will occasionally shift to the macro level when needed. Second, my analyses will largely rely on results from empirical research. They will be supplemented by daily-life observations and appropriate conceptual or theoretical analyses. Third, Chinese intellectuals have been playing a guiding role of enlightenment, criticism, and promotion and their responses have been influential in formulating, directing, or channeling the views of the general public. A comprehensive analysis of relevant ideologies and strategies endorsed by Chinese intellectuals will be provided. Finally, the analysis of Chinese responses to modernization will be based upon the relevant literature from all the three major Chinese societies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China). In addition, this paper will clarify the basic modes and specific mechanisms of adaptation to drastic environmental changes. They will be applied as conceptual tools for the analysis of Chinese intellectuals’ ideological responses to modernization and psychological processes involved in accommodating cognitive and behavioral changes in their daily lives.

Explaining a Religious Anomaly: A Historical Analysis of Secularization in Eastern Germany

Abstract: The sociology of religion is engrossed in a debate concerning the process of secularization Some theories of secularization hold that religiosity decreases under the effects of modernization In opposition, supply-side models of religious change maintain that declines in religiosity can be explained only through changes in the supply of religious goods To further examine mechanisms of secularization, this article investigates the emergence of the most secularized society in the world today—eastern Germany The extremely high percent of atheists in contemporary eastern Germany suggests that the public demand for religion has diminished But the process of modernization did not bring about this change; instead, current drops in religious demand and religiosity in eastern Germany are the result of dramatic interventions in the supply of religious goods over the past two centuries We trace the historical conditions that have created the most atheistic society ever