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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2026.34.27.007
MODERNIZATION THEORY AS A THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL BASIS FOR NORTH CAUCASIAN REGIONAL STUDIES.
Aylarova, Svetlana A.
Kavkaz Forum. 2026. Issue 27.
Abstract:
This article provides a general overview of modernization theory as it emerged in Russian historiography at the beginning of the XXIst century. The author draws on the works of V. G. Fedotova and her colleagues, who present a conceptual philosophical vision of the modernization process, categories of modernity (contemporaneity), and their historical sequence. The article examines the key semantic nodes and contemporary constants of modernization theory – the concepts of modernity, culture, tradition, and civilization – that are relevant to the intellectual history of Russia and the North Caucasus, as well as to regional studies. The article highlights the importance of understanding the role of national traditions and culture in development and progress for modern modernization theory. Historical models of modernization with varying balances of tradition, culture, and modernity are characterized. Particular attention is paid to the concept of the «axial» civilization of modernity, developed by the Israeli scholar Sh. Eisenstadt and his followers. Like the «axial» civilizations of Antiquity, the ideas and practices of modernity act as a cultural magnet shaping the global civilization of our time. An analysis of the history of social thought in the North Caucasus in the XIXth and early XXth centuries, using modernization theory (in its contemporary paradigm) allows us to see the region’s ideological and cultural history as part of the global cultural and historical process of modernization, the transition from a traditional society to a modern, innovative one. A look at the history of the North Caucasus region through the prism of modernization theory is relevant and promising for studying all spheres and aspects of regional history: social, political, economic, spiritual, and cultural.
Keywords: North Caucasus, modernization theory, culture, tradition, axial civilization, social thought.
Language: Russian
Download the full text  For citation: Aylarova, S.A. Modernization theory as a theoretical and methodological basis for North Caucasian regional studies. KAVKAZ-FORUM. 2026, iss. 27 (34), pp. 105-116. (in Russian). DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2026.34.27.007 DOI 10.46698/VNC.2026.34.27.007
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