Response to Bright and Geyer

Bright and Geyer argue that the great divergence “does not project well to the end of the century” (295) as countries all over the world created their own “modern” societies by adopting some western practices and developing their own. The ideas of westernization does not result in some form of enlightenment but instead, one way of development. Thinking of  the world needing to catch up to the west assumes that the west is doing something, in terms of human development as fundamentally right. This is seen as the great convergences has “los[t] cogency and descriptive power,  at least since the 1970s” (295). Each country has its own idea of right and wrong and moving towards a western European model is not fundamentally what each country wants to do. I agree with the authors in stating that the west of the world finds its own ways to react to the changing western Europe instead of trying to being it. Fighting to keep their social and political independence as more and more competitors appear in a more global economy is the main focus in non western nations.

Privacy Statement