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Modernization theory

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


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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the nature of the state itself, its location within the matrix of a class-divided society, and its relationship with contending social forces, concluding that the state is an entity that stands outside and above society, an autonomous agency that is invested (potentially) with an independent source of rationality (enriched by "technical assistance" from metropolitan countries).
Abstract: Given the central role that is accorded to the state and public policy in “modernization” theory, it is rather striking to see how little thought is given to an examination of the nature of the state itself, its location within the matrix of a class-divided society, and its relationship with contending social forces. The state is, rather, thought of as an entity that stands outside and above society, an autonomous agency that is invested (potentially) with an independent source of rationality (enriched by “technical assistance” from metropolitan countries), and the capability to initiate and pursue programs of development for the benefit of the whole of society. There is an implicit disjunction between the state and society, slurring over questions about the social foundations of political power and the making of public policy. The problematic of the state is then narrowed down to that of the efficacy of its public institutions and organs to achieve objectives and programs of “modernization,” focusing especially on the respective roles of “ruling elites,” political parties, the bureaucracy, and the military.

68 citations

Book
13 Aug 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present configurations of globalization in Laos and discuss the Lao reaction to modernization. But they do not discuss the relationship between Lao social structure and Lao language.
Abstract: 1. Globalization, Social Theory, and Southeast Asia 2. Lao Social Structure 3. The Lao Economic Field 4. Nation and Nationalism 5. The Lao Academic Field 6. Globalization and Lao Language 7. Monks and Magic Revisited 8. A Globalizing Music Scene 9. Lao Reactions to Modernization 10. Configurations of Globalization in Laos

67 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine current practices used in the evaluation of US industrial modernization programs at state and national levels, drawing on interviews with program managers, site visits, and scrutiny of available studies.

67 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines the ways in which modernization and globalization are experienced, negotiated, and understood by women in rural-to-urban migration in contemporary China and discusses the narratives of rural migrant women working in the city of Beijing A striking feature of these narratives is the variety of conflicting evaluations of place presented, not just by different women, but also by the same individuals.
Abstract: This article examines the ways in which modernization and globalization are experienced, negotiated, and understood by women in rural-to-urban migration in contemporary China In the last two decades, labor mobility in China has increased dramatically, with millions of people leaving the countryside for the promise of money and a modern life in the coastal special economic zones such as Shenzhen and in the global cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou This article discusses the narratives of rural migrant women working in the city of Beijing A striking feature of these narratives is the variety of conflicting evaluations of place presented, not just by different women, but also by the same individuals For example, the stated wish to stay in the city as long as possible often conflicts with complaints about the hardships faced there Conversely, it is very common for women to describe their home in the village with fondness and nostalgia, but to say that they never want to go back The author of thi

67 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical reconsideration of a central component of modernization theory, the model of secularization devised within the sociology of religion, and especially the version sustained by sociologists in the UK, is presented.
Abstract: This historiographical review offers a critical reconsideration of a central component of modernization theory: the model of secularization devised within the sociology of religion, and especially the version sustained by sociologists in the UK. It compares that model with the results of historical research in a range of themes and periods, and suggests that those results are now often radically inconsistent with this sociological orthodoxy. It concludes that an older historical scenario which located in the early modern period the beginnings of a ‘process’ of secularization that achieved its natural completion in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries is finally untenable, and it proposes a broader, more historical conception of ‘religion’ able to accommodate both persistent religiosity and undoubted changes in religious behaviour.

67 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
20231,630
20223,824
2021370
2020573
2019604