modernization

(noun)

A model of an evolutionary transition from a "pre-modern" or "traditional" society to a "modern" society, including the adoption of new industry and technology.

Related Terms

  • Information Revolution
  • Industrial Revolution

Examples of modernization in the following topics:

  • Durkheim and Social Integration

    • In modern society, collective effervescence continues to play a role in cementing social solidarity.
    • One of Durkheim's primary goals was to analyze how how modern societies could maintain social integration after the traditional bonds of family and church were replaced by modern economic relations.
    • Durkheim worried that modernity might herald the disintegration of society.
    • In modern societies, under organic solidarity, people are necessarily much more interdependent.
    • Professor Dan Krier, of Iowa State University, explains Durkheim's theories of social solidarity and modernity.
  • Modernization and Technology

    • Modernization deals with social change from agrarian societies to industrial ones, with new technologies playing an important role.
    • Modernization deals with social change from agrarian societies to industrial ones, so it is important to look at technology changes across contexts.
    • These developments also shaped new patterns of urbanization, labor, and family life, all of which may be deemed a process of modernization.
    • Modernization through technological innovation is seen by modernization theorists as a key way that poor countries can "catch up" to the developed world.
    • Another flaw with modernization theory is its failure to recognize that if poorer countries adopt the technologies of higher-income countries, this may foster dependence.
  • Introduction

    • Modern social movements became possible through the wider dissemination of literature and increased mobility of labor due to the industrialization of societies.
    • Organised social structures like modern day armies, political societies, and popular movements required freedom of expression, education and relative economic independence.
    • Giddens has identified four areas in which social movements operate in modern societies:
  • Secularism and the Future of Religion

    • Most modern Western societies are recognized as secular because they enjoy near-complete freedom of religion.
    • In studies of religion, modern Western societies are generally recognized as secular.
    • The secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies "progress," particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance.
    • The secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies "progress," particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance.
  • Rational-Legal Authority

    • The majority of the modern states of the twentieth century are rational-legal authorities, according to those who use this form of classification .
    • Weber wrote that the modern state based on rational-legal authority emerged from the patrimonial and feudal struggle for power uniquely in Western civilization.
    • The prerequisites for the modern Western state are the monopoly by a central authority of the means of administration and control; the monopoly of legislative authority; and the organization of officialdom, dependent upon the central authority.
    • According to Max Weber, a modern state exists where a political community has three elements.
    • Recall the three characteristics of the modern state, according to Weber
  • Economic Sociology

    • Sociology came of age in the late nineteenth century, at the same time as capitalism and modernity were taking root.
    • The classical period was concerned particularly with modernity and its phenomenological progeny, such as rationalization, secularization, urbanization, and social stratification.
    • Influential figures in modern economic sociology include Fred L.
  • The Conflict Perspective on Deviance

    • For example, the modern prison is a template for these institutions, because it controls its inmates by the perfect use of discipline.
    • Michel Foucault believed that torture had been phased out from modern society due to the dispersion of power; so there was no need any more for the wrath of the state on a deviant individual.
    • Rather, the modern state receives praise for its fairness and dispersion of power that, instead of controlling each individual, controls the mass.
    • The modern prison is a template for these institutions, because it controls its inmates by the perfect use of discipline.
  • History

    • Most modern censuses began in the late 18th century.
  • Global Inequality

    • In contrast, in the modern world, the rise of capitalism brought modern attitudes, modern technologies such as machinery and electronics, and modern institutions which helped countries progress and have a higher standard of living.
    • Given enough time, modernization will occur everywhere in the world.
    • Eventually global capitalism and its modern corporations will hold these modern ideas, technical innovations, and efficient institutions everywhere.
  • Health Insurance

    • Two types of health insurance exist in modern society, private health insurance and publicly funded health insurance.
    • Modern medicine approaches health care from two angles.
    • Modern, scientific medicine has proven uniquely effective at treating and preventing disease.
    • Modern medicine is notably secular, and indifferent to ideas of the supernatural or the spiritual.
    • Modern, scientific medicine is the most effective contributor to the health of humans in the world today.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.