Modernization Theory Assignment 2 PDF

**Modernization Theory** A close-up of a paper Description automatically generated Modernization theory casts development as a uniform evolu tionary route that all societies follow, from agricultural, rural, and traditional societies to postindustrial, urban, and modern forms (Bradshaw, 1987; Esco...

**Modernization Theory** A close-up of a paper Description automatically generated Modernization theory casts development as a uniform evolu tionary route that all societies follow, from agricultural, rural, and traditional societies to postindustrial, urban, and modern forms (Bradshaw, 1987; Escobar, 1995; Chirot and Hall, 1982; Shrum, 2000). In other words, all societies, once engaged in the modernization process, follow a predetermined sequence of developmental stages: traditional economies, transition to takeoff, takeoff itself, drive to maturity, age of high consumption, and postindustrial society (Chirot and Hall, 1982: 82). Modernization theory emphasizes internal forces and sources of socioeconomic development such as formal education, market-based economy, and democratic and secular political structures. Although modernization theory does not rule out external forces and sources of social change and economic development, it focuses less on foreign influences (Jenkins and Scanlan, 2001; Shrum, 2000). Among external influences, however, science is exceptional because it is considered beneficial to developing countries by way of 'knowledge and technology transfer' from developed countries (Shrum, 2000). In other words, societies can be fast-tracked to modernization by 'importing' Western technical capital, forms of organization, and science and technology to developing countries (Herkenrath and Bornschier, 2003; Shrum, 2000). W.W. Rostow argues that adoption of scientific methods and scientific ways of thinking and acquisition of technoscientific skills are critical at the 'transition to takeoff' stage of development (Chirot and Hall, 1982). Essentially, proponents of modernization theory view science and technology as catalysts for development. Science and technology provide conducive environments for economic growth in developing countries through their ability to provide rational protocols in decision making for the efficient use of material and human resources (Shrum and Shenhav, 1995). As far as modernization theory is concerned, development is simply a matter of knowledge and technology transfer that is unproblematic and straightforward, context free, and not disruptive of existing social and cultural arrangements in developing countries (Herkenrath and Bornschier, 2003). Modernization theory also seems to be unmindful of the fact that much of the knowledge and technology critical for national development and national competitiveness are within the domain of proprietary knowledge production. In a way, modernization theory implies a monolithic, one-way, and top-down development scheme that holds true for all identities, for all time, for all places, and for all contexts. The same holds true for knowledge generation, production, dissemination, and representation. In this top-down development model, the sources of knowledge are foreign to the places and identities to which knowledge is applied or exported. As a model for social change and development, modernization theory fails to consider the possibility of having an interactive and multifarious process of knowledge generation and exchange, which is made possible by recent advances in ICT. As far as modernization theory is concerned, science is seen as exceptional and different from other institutions in Western developed countries, and is assumed to be independent of and invariant to the limitations of contexts of interpretation and use, and further is viewed as a search, by means of generating objective and rational knowledge claims, for empirical truths and universal laws. Such casting of science is reminiscent of the limited translation model that Callon (1995) critiques. In other words, modernization theory emphasizes the beneficial role of objective, rational science in national socioeconomic development. It de-emphasizes science's possible higher order and negative interactional effects upon local contexts and the identities that populate such contexts.