Determining Factors of Socio-Cultural Strategy in Modernization Theories

There are numerous works of both Russian and foreign authors concerning the issue of modernization, yet interest toward it is far from exhausted. While complexity of globalization processes grows, modernization constantly presents us with new challenges, thus demanding new approaches in research. This article represents our attempt to rethink existing concepts in order to prove the preference of deploying research in a socio-cultural direction, which may ensure priority of the human factor, social partnership and social equality in the global arena, as, without these, modernization also loses its socio-cultural perspective and content. Most certainly, this new idea requires a sociocultural model of modernization to be created, as well as a corresponding methodology. However, we are forced to narrow the postulate of the topic, as the justification of the need for such a model raises certain questions, namely: why exactly it is needed, and what factors hindering its development are present in existing modernization theories. Therefore, the following tasks have been prioritized: highlighting the positive aspects of the three stages of modernization theory, changing the paradigms of research approaches, creating the principles of interdisciplinarity by the American school of social scientists, determining the role of science in the institutionalization of these processes. The article highlights as determining factors of the socio-cultural modernization strategy the political motives for creating the modernization theory, leading to an increase in the status of strong states over weak ones, to an imbalance in the development of different societies, subordination of the weak to the powerful. Unlike many researchers who associate the leap in human progress with the Industrial Revolution and the Great French Revolution, the author believes that the true origins of the phenomenon should be found in the Scientific Revolution of the Western countries of the 16th—17th centuries. After all, the basis and driving force of modernization consist of intellectual capital and the middle class. The article also provides examples of practical application of scientific discoveries, its destructive and positive influence on Western societies in the era of rapid changes, giving examples to all humanity. In conclusion, the article defines the socio-cultural model of modernization.

1. Huntington S. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press Publ., 1993, 366 p.

2. Rostow W.W. Politics and the Stages of Growth. Moscow, Progress Publ., 1973, 204 p. (in Russ.).

3. Benedict R. Patterns of Culture. Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company Publ., 1934, 290 p.

4. Malinovsky B. Izbrannoe: Argonavty zapadnoi chasti Tikhogo okeana [Selected Works: Argonauts of the Western Pacific]. Moscow, Tsentr Gumanitarnykh Initsiativ Publ., 2015, 552 p.

5. Dobrenkov V.I. (ed.) Amerikanskaya sotsiologicheskaya mysl’: teksty [American Sociological Thought: texts]. Moscow, Moskovskogo Universiteta Publ., 1994, 496 p.

6. Black S.E. The Dynamics of Modernization. A Study in Comparative History. New York, Harper & Row Publ., 1966, 207 p.

7. Zapf W. (ed.) Die Modernisierung moderner Gesellschaften: Verhandlungen des 25. Deutschen Soziologentages in Frankfurt am Main 1990. Frankfurt, New York, Campus Publ., 1991, 823 p.

8. Inkeles A., Smith D.H. Becoming Modern: Individual Change in Six Developing Countries. Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press Publ., 1974, 437 p. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674499348.

9. Demetradze M.R. Vertically-Ascending Strategy and Horizontally-Descending Processes of the Transitional Period. Institutional and Non-Institutional Processes of Modernization, Politika i obshchestvo [Politics and Society], 2016, no. 2, pp. 197—202. DOI: 10.7256/2454-0684.2016.2.17192 (in Russ.).

10. Eisenstadt S.N. Multiple Modernities, Daedalus, 2000, vol. 129, no. 1, pp. 1—29. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027613 (accessed 19.05.2022).

11. Wittrock B. Modernity: One, None, or Many? European Origins and Modernity as a Global Condition, Daedalus, 2000, vol. 129, no. 1, pp. 31—60. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027614 (accessed 19.05.2022).

12. Gaunkaur D.P. (ed.) Alternative Modernities. Durham, NC, Duke University Press Books Publ., 2001, 376 p.

13. Bendix R. Nation-Building and Citizenship: Studies of Our Changing Social Order. New York, John Wiley and Suns Publ., 1964, 341 p.

14. Rokkan S. Citizens, Elections, Parties: Approaches to the Comparative Study of the Processes of Development. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget Publ., 1970, 470 p.

15. Wallerstein I. Analiz mirovykh system [World Systems Analysis]. Moscow, Lenand Publ., 2020, 400 p.

16. Evans P.B., Stephens J. Development and the World Economy, Handbook of Economic Sociology. Prinseton, Prinseton University Press Publ., 1994, pp. 270—290.

17. Touraine A. Critique de la modernité. Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard Publ., 1992, 510 p.

18. Bell D. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. A Venture in Social Forecasting. Moscow, Academia Publ., 1999, 944 p. (in Russ.).

19. Eisenstadt S.N., Rokkan S. (eds.) Building States and Nations. Beverly Hills, Sage Publications, 1973, vol. 1, 397 p.

20. Parsons T. Sociological Theory and Modern Society. New York, Free Press Publ., 1968, 564 p.

21. Beck U., Giddens A., Lash S. Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Redwood City, CA, Stanford University Press Publ., 1994, 228 p.

22. Zapf W., Flora P. Differences in Paths of Development: An Analysis of Ten Countries, Building States and Nations. Beverly Hills, Sage Publications, 1973, vol. 1, pp. 161—211.

23. Tiryakian E.A. Modernization: Exhumetur in Pace (Rethinking Macrosociology in the 1990s’), International Sociology, 1991, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 165—180. DOI: 10.1177/026858091006002004.

24. Inkeles A., Smith D.H. Becoming Modern: Individual Change in Six Developing Countries. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press Publ., 1974, 437 p.

25. Lerner D. The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East. Glencoe, Ill, The Free Press Publ., 1958, 466 p.

26. Black C.E. The Dynamics of Modernization: A Study in Comparative History. New York, Harper & Row Publ., 1966, 207 p.

27. McClelland D.C. The Achieving Society. Princeton, NJ, Van Nostrand Publ., 1961, 512 p.

28. Eisenstadt S.N. European Civilization in Comparative Perspective: a Study in the Relations between Culture and Social Structure. Oslo, Norwegian University Press Publ., 1987, 162 p.

29. Eisenstadt S.N. Tradition, Change, and Modernity. New York, John Wiley & Sons Publ., 1973, 367 p.

30. Shils E. Tradition — Essays on Modernity: The Indian Situation. The Hague, Mouton Publ., 1961, 120 p.

31. Schumpeter J.A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Moscow, Ekonomika Publ., 1995, 540 p. (in Russ.).

32. Hobsbawm E. The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789—1848. Rostov-on-Don, Feniks Publ., 1999, 480 p. (in Russ.).

33. Forrester J. World Dynamics. Moscow, AST Publ., 2006, 384 p. (in Russ.).

34. Almond G., Powell G.B. Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach. Boston, Little, Brown and Company Publ., 1966, 348 p.