Civilization and Modernization: What's the Difference? - Ali Shariati

In Civilization and Modernization, Ali Shariati draws useful distinctions between the two. For Shariati, modernization replaced civilization in the Third World, but the colonialists were able to convince the colonized peoples that the two were one and the same. This task also involved separating Third World peoples from their own traditions and cultures, and replacing them with an empty, rootless modernization focused on creating and then catering to desires that would benefit the expansion of Western capitalist production. In order for that expansion to be successful, Shariati saw that the cultures of Third World peoples had to be radically altered to suit the new culture of modernization.