Modernization (or Westernization) is one of those terms that are constantly employed in the social sciences, but are not as frequently critically analyzed and questioned. This is not to say that the processes and the consequences that these terms imply remain uncontested. At one extreme, Westernization suggests a civilizing process. At the other, it conjures up bleak images of global homogenization and sameness. Yet despite their radically different approaches, these views share a fundamental underlying assumption – that there exists a cultural entity called “the West” on the basis of which the rest of the world can be classified and evaluated.

My aim in this chapter is to question the soundness of this assumption both empirically and theoretically. The notion of a reified West is debunked empirically, even if inadvertently, by several studies of “core” societies that, in addition to demonstrating internal diversity, suggest close affinity with Other parts of the world. The notion is also untenable for two interrelated theoretical reasons. First, because no sociocultural universe is ever integrated enough to avoid structural contradictions. And second, because contradictions create the preconditions for strategies that transcend the limits of the system, even if the end result is their reproduction further down the road.