Modernization

(from L. modernum, recent, and from moderno, recently come into existence, that has happened recently). Way to confer a modern form or appearance to something. To perfect, to change something so that it corresponds to present-day demands and tastes. In contemporary sociology m. is understood as the process of transformation of traditional society, which is closed and immobile, little inclined toward changes, into an open society, equipped with intensive communications and having a high degree of social mobility, organically incorporated into the international community, not as a marginal appendage but as an active subject, with full and equal rights in international relations. At times, m. (crudely disguising vested interests) is presented as the extension of “western culture” to other areas, with the resulting displacement of vernacular cultures and languages. The process of m. is due not so much to external factors as to the internal needs of progress in traditional societies, that seek to mobilize their reserves for an accelerated development, and to eliminate not just their technological backwardness, but their social and informational backwardness as well. These societies attempt to overcome their marginality by integrating into the universal process.