Modernization theory

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

Futures of sustainability as modernization, transformation, and control: a conceptual framework

Abstract: In the last three decades, sustainability has become a guiding principle for states, organizations, companies, and social movements as well as a general ideal for social change. While sustainability seems to be a rather inevitable path of development, there is no consensus over the goals and visions of the future associated with this concept. Proponents of a “Green Economy,” for instance, regard economic growth as a prerequisite for sustainable development and advocate a modernization of society, which implies moderate adjustments toward a sustainable economy within the current institutional framework. Critics of this ecological modernization approach see the imperative of economic growth as an obstacle for sustainable development and instead support a fundamental transformation of society. A third perspective tries to solve the problems of sustainable development with wide-ranging politics of control, using concepts such as “ecological state of emergency” or enforcing resilience measures for vulnerable populations while creating safe enclaves for a privileged few. These three possible ideal typical trajectories of social change—modernization, transformation, and control—are not fixed yet, but rather represent different and highly contested imaginaries of the future. These imaginaries then structure distinctive practices of sustainability in the fields of politics, the economy, civil society, and science. These practices in turn are interdependent with specific structures, such as material infrastructures or the ecological system of the earth. The proposed conceptional framework uses the theoretical concepts of imaginaries, practices, and structures to study the possible futures of sustainability, specifically modernization, transformation, and control, as well as possible interdependencies between these developments. It focuses on sustainability as a sociological category indicative for understanding socioeconomic change, the emergence of new conflicts, inequalities, hierarchies, and justification patterns that result from including sustainable criteria into different fields, institutions, and value systems. Deciphering futures of sustainability does not aim at providing prognoses or forecasts, but intents to work out an analytical concept that asks how contemporary societies change when they are guided by imaginaries of sustainability.

Women and Development The Case of South Korea

Abstract: During the last three decades, South Korea has experienced a remarkable economic growth that is often referred to as a "miracle." The densely populated country, with little arable land, virtually no mineral reserves, and an excessively heavy military burden, has recorded one of the highest rates of economic growth of any country. From 1953 to 1990, South Korea's GNP registered an average annual growth rate of 8 percent, with many peaks over 10 percent. These rates surpassed the 4 to 5 percent of the advanced industrial economies, the socialist countries, and the oil producers. Since independence in 1945, South Korea has evolved from a state of poverty characterized by periodic hunger and starvation to a model case of the newly industrializing countries in the world. Have the spectacular economic development and rapid modernization been accompanied by substantial progress in women's status in South Korea? This study will advance the thesis that, in spite of South Korean women's significant contribution to the export-led economic growth of the country, a reward commensurate with their contribution has not followed. In advancing this thesis, the paper will examine the major theoretical frameworks on women and development, women's role in South Korean economic development, the status of South Korean women in the economic, social, and political arenas, and a series of factors that help account for the backwardness of South Korean women.

Built infrastructure is essential

Abstract: Built water infrastructure supported the evolution of all human societies and will remain an integral part of socioeconomic development and modernization. Some postindustrial societies not only seek to “preserve” existing aquatic ecosystems in their otherwise transformed landscapes but also insist that others do the same. They suggest that “green infrastructure” can provide “equivalent or similar benefits to conventional (built) ‘gray’ water infrastructure” (1).