Non-Western Modernization? — Technological Development in a Multipolar World

This article summarizes the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop convened to explore the concept and possibilities of non-Western modernization in today's multipolar world. Bringing together scholars from China, Germany, Denmark, India, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States, the workshop focused on political programs — exemplified by China, Russia, India, and certain Latin American countries — that pursue technological development while embodying diverse approaches to liberal political values. The discussion was framed by Sheila Jasanoff's keynote lecture, which challenged linear, Western-centric narratives of modernity by introducing the concept of «sociotechnical imaginaries» — collectively held visions of desirable futures that shape technological trajectories across different cultural and political contexts. Tracing the evolution of modernization theory from its Cold War origins, where Western institutions served as normative models, to contemporary programs of «technological modernization» that retain technology while stripping away modernity's emancipatory components, the workshop then focused on a central tension: whether technology can be separated from the values historically associated with its development. Participants examined how universal values become branded as «Western,» interrogating the counterfactual stances underpinning Enlightenment principles such as tolerance, epistemic humility, and the bracketing of morality in favor of ethics. The discussion further questioned whether these cultivated Western stances can be replaced without abandoning modernity altogether — a question complicated by the recognition that modern science itself presupposes non-dogmatic tolerance. Additional themes included the institutional dimensions of universal values, the relationship between deglobalization and digital sovereignty, and the importance of methodological symmetry — treating legal systems, political institutions, and ideologies as technologies requiring equal analytical attention. The workshop concluded that non-Western modernization involves selective adaptation, ethical negotiation, and strategic reinterpretation rather than wholesale rejection or replication of Western models — pointing toward contested, reflexive pathways into uncertain futures shaped by deep political and cultural differences.