Updating Social Theory: Redefinition of Modernization

The article considered a critical appraisal of the modernization theory in its mono-paradigm frames and offers a heterodox conceptual meaning of modernization. Obviously, the varieties of methodological ap- proaches to that important theoretical topic would have to be much more comprehensive than con- temporary interpretations of linear pattern mainstream theories propose. Rethinking the conceptual foun- dations of the existing interpretation of the very concept is the model of adaptive modernization. Protect- ing its own matrix core, the system carries out partial correction of specific parameters, in which there is a lag, to increase their own vitality. Constructive changes are intra-systemic and occur within the existing order, without destroying its foundations, main institutional structures, and preserve the generic socio- cultural genotype Modernization, as reception of foreign cultural innovations (technical and technological) with their appropriate adaptation to the endogenous conditions, is an adequate adaptive response of a so- cial system to external risks or exogenous origin impact.