Drama of Modernization Theory. Article 1. Modernization as a Recipe and a Problem

Author(s):  
I. Starodubrovskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Noy ◽  
Patricia A. McManus

Are health care systems converging in developing nations? We use the case of health care financing in Latin America between 1995 and 2009 to assess the predictions of modernization theory, competing strands of globalization theory, and accounts of persistent cross-national differences. As predicted by modernization theory, we find convergence in overall health spending. The public share of health spending increased over this time period, with no convergence in the public-private mix. The findings indicate robust heterogeneity of national health care systems and suggest that globalization fosters human investment health policies rather than neoliberal, “race to the bottom” cutbacks in public health expenditures.


Author(s):  
Sebastian Conrad

This chapter shows how in Japan, the year 1945 represented a change of a very different kind. Japanese historians now repudiated the ultranationalist historiography of the 1930s and early 1940s, and turned in significant numbers towards Marxism, which rapidly achieved a kind of hegemony. They criticized the master narrative of the post-Meiji past, centered on the Tennō (emperor), and identified it with Fascism as a failed experiment in modernity. In the 1960s, however, this Marxist historiographical dominance was gradually supplanted by a pluralism of competing approaches. Modernization theory, social science methodologies, and ‘history from below’ coexisted, and historians, inspired by the Japanese economic miracle, tried to come to terms with the fact that Japan’s traditions, long perceived as an obstacle to modernization, actually seemed to foster it.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 704-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Achterberg ◽  
Willem de Koster ◽  
Jeroen van der Waal

Following up on suggestions that attitudes toward science are multi-dimensional, we analyze nationally representative survey data collected in the United States in 2014 ( N = 2006), and demonstrate the existence of a science confidence gap: some people place great trust in scientific methods and principles, but simultaneously distrust scientific institutions. This science confidence gap is strongly associated with level of education: it is larger among the less educated than among the more educated. We investigate explanations for these educational differences. Whereas hypotheses deduced from reflexive-modernization theory do not pass the test, those derived from theorizing on the role of anomie are corroborated. The less educated are more anomic (they have more modernity-induced cultural discontents), which not only underlies their distrust in scientific institutions, but also fuels their trust in scientific methods and principles. This explains why this science confidence gap is most pronounced among the less educated.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Joseph Downs ◽  
Chad Stephen Seifried

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the historical factors that influenced the design and construction of modern National Hockey League and National Basketball Association arenas between 1990 and 2018. Additionally, this paper seeks to index the characteristics of those modern arenas while forwarding reasonable, informed propositions for future multipurpose arena design.Design/methodology/approachThe historical methodology was applied to the design and construction of modern multipurpose arenas between 1990 and 2018. Modernization theory was utilized as an organizing construct to understand the intentional managerial actions to capitalize on consumer expectations by responding to economic and technological changes.FindingsSport managers responded to decreased median family incomes during the period of the study by building arenas with increasingly commodified spaces and amenities targeting wealthy and corporate customers. New technologies were adopted within facilities to meet the needs and expectations of in-venue and remote consumers.Practical implicationsIn addition to demonstrating the practical utility of modernization theory and applied history for sport management scholars and practitioners, particularly in the Western context, the present study provides a series of propositions for future sport managers to consider to maintain or establish institutional advantage in the arena marketplace.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the sport management literature by demonstrating the utility of modernization theory and applied history for sport management. In examining the design history of modern multipurpose arenas, the paper identifies the characteristics of modern multipurpose arenas while demonstrating the importance of understanding context and intentionality in managerial decision making.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 112-127
Author(s):  
Victoria V. Anohina

The article examines the specificity of transdisciplinary orientations in modern scientific knowledge and reveals the multidimensionality of transdisciplinarity as a phenomenon of post-nonclassical science. Since transdisciplinarity is largely formed as a response to the challenge of increasing complexity and uncertainty of the future transformations in the “nature – man – society” system, the most appropriate area of transdisciplinary research today is environmental knowledge. In the example of the Ecological Modernization Theory (EMT), we investigate the interdisciplinary structure and transdisciplinary status of contemporary social ecology. The aim of the article is to analyze the various modes of transdisciplinarity in the structure of the ecological modernization theory and to identify its role in the dynamics of modern environmentalism. The epistemological status of EMT is explicated through philosophical and methodological reflection on the alternative discourses of sustainability as well as by using the principles of a systematic approach, methods of comparative analysis and semantic interpretation. The idea of sustainable development and the values of environmentalism are considered important factors in the formation of concepts and categories of this theory, its initial postulates and principles. The article substantiates the synthetic character of this theory, which meets the requirements of the post-non-classical type of scientific rationality. A conclusion is substantiated that EMT can be classified as a post-normal science. As a result of the analysis, it is argued that environmental philosophy has a special understanding of the goals of social development, principles of justice, social harmony, and human well-being. The reinterpretation of these concepts is a basis for adoption of novel theoretical schemes and methodological orientations in the system of modern socio-environmental studies. 


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-119
Author(s):  
VA Okosun ◽  
JO Ezomo

It is a credo amongst scholars cum academics all over the globe that well coordinated and elaborate programmes and policies of rural development mounted by the third world countries in sub-Saharan Africa will lift her entire citizenry from manacle of gross underdevelopment to a region of  development in all facets of their economies. The countries in sub-Saharan African have spent trillions of dollars in rural development sector but an overview of the economies of these countries show that the vast population are marooned and encapsulated in gross poverty, ignorance, and  underdevelopment. The reason is attributable to poor implementation of rural development policies and programmes coupled with a host of  variegated factors. This paper therefore defines the concept of  implementation and rural development. The authors of this paper adopt the modernization theory to explicate the work. It discusses the significance of rural development to the economies of Sub-Saharan African countries. The paper also explains how poor implementation of rural  development programmes affects these countries. Moreover, it  orchestrates the factors/problems that impede rural development drives of various governments in Sub-Saharan African. Furthermore, it elucidates on the prospects of rural development. The paper finally suggests that an effective implementation of rural development programmes in all  ramifications is the only vehicle for rapid growth and economic  development in Sub-Saharan Africa.


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