Modernization: History, Theory, and Reflection: Also on the Critique of Modernization by Western Left: History, Theory, and Reflection (Also on the Critique of Modernization by Western Left)

Author: Zhou Suiming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The book is divided into three parts and seventeen chapters, including seven chapters on history, three chapters on theory, and seven chapters on critique. In the first part, "Development Models and Paths of Modernization," we examine in detail the historical models and development paths of seven countries and regions—Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan, Latin America, and East Asia—towards modernization, providing a vertical review of modernization development in world history. In the second part, "Theories and Methods of Western Modernization," we focus on theoretical abstraction of different modernization models and horizontal structural analysis of the common factors that constitute modernization. Based on the purely academic discussion of concepts such as modernity and modernization in Chapter 8, Chapter 9 comprehensively surveys the theories of nine representative figures across three major stages of Western modernization theory. Chapter 10 explains the evolution of the methodology of Western modernization theory, tracing its transition from Eurocentrism and Western centrism to postmodernist approaches. The third part, "Critique of Western Modernization by Western Leftists," is the highlight of the book, accounting for nearly half of its content. It examines the modernization critique theories of seven major contemporary Western leftist schools, primarily focusing on representative critiques emerging since the 1990s, such as postmodernism, eco-socialism, left-wing feminism, market socialism, and left-wing globalization theory. This part showcases the new level and height of Western leftist modernization critique under the influence of postmodernist cultural trends in the 1990s.