本文是两位政治学家为《布莱克维尔社会学百科全书》所撰写的词条。内容涉及现代化的含义,现代化理论的缘起、发展过程和不同流派,现代化所包含的六个维度,现代化在系统层面、个体层面和社会关系层面等三个视野中所体现出来的总性体特征,以及现代化与文化变迁、民主、人类发展和社会资本的关系。 This article is written by two political scientists for the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. The content involves the meaning of modernization, the origins of the modernization theory, the development process and the different schools, the six dimensions of modernization, the general characteristics of the three dimensions of modernization embodied in the three perspectives: system level, individual level and social relationship level. As well as the relationship between modernization and cultural change, democracy, human development and social capital.