The main objective of the present study is to present an alternative theory of modernization taking a uniquely different approach than the existing theories originated in and centered around the Western intellectual circle. For a theory of modernization to be useful in understanding the historical transformations of various nations all over the world, it needs to pay due attention to stipulating the historical dynamics of the process. It is, therefore, suggested that modernization is to be defined and understood as a dialectical process of twin changes of the initial international acculturation on a global scale emanated from the West and the adaptive change of each nation affected by the cultural contact resulting in indigenization of modern culture. In short, it is more appropriate to define modernization as a selective change each society pursues and modernity as a resulting cultural mixture.

KIM Kyong-Dong has a BA from Seoul National University, MA from the University of Michigan, and PhD (1972) from Cornell University, all in Sociology. He had taught at Seoul Women’s University, North Carolina State University at Raleigh(1971-76), and Seoul National University(1977-2002), also at l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris(1991), Duke University(1996, 98), and KDI(Korea Development Institute) School of Public Policy and Management(since 2001) as Visiting Professor, and he was Research Fellow at the East-West Center and Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC(1986-87). Currently, he is Visiting Professor at both KAIST College of Business (since 2011) and KDI School, Professor Emeritus of Seoul National University, and Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea (since 2002). He was President of the Korean Sociological Association and is President of the Korea Forum Volunteerism. He authored and edited a couple scores of books both in Korean and English, published hundreds of articles internationally, in the fields of modernization and development studies, social change, industrial relations, education, and others.