Modernization is a complex phenomenon in the world, and is termed as a development goal in some countries and regions. This book, the first of its kind, discusses how a country can become modernized. It takes a new approach to addressing core issues in the era of globalization from a Chinese perspective. It analyzes how to become a developed and modernized country, why are some countries developed while others are not, how many countries will rise and how many will fall, will China become a new modernized country in the 21st century, and so on. The author presents a summary of 15 annual reports of China Modernization Report from 2001 to 2016. The themes covered include: basic principles of modernization (modernization science, modernization theory and modernization evaluation), level-related modernization (world, international, national, regional and urban modernization), field-relative modernization (economical, social, cultural and ecological modernization) and sector-specified modernization (agricultural, industrial and service modernization) etc.The book further discusses the principles and methods of world modernization, as well as the trends in modernization in the world and the modernization strategy in China, based on theoretical studies and research by a Chinese team for more than 16 years. This research covered 131 countries and 96% of the world's population, with a time span of 300 years (from 1750 to 2050).

Robinson Crusoe is one of the most famous literary characters in history, and his story has spawned hundreds of retellings. Inspired by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for several years on a Pacific island, the novel tells the story of Crusoe’s survival after shipwreck on an island, interaction with the mainland’s native inhabitants, and eventual rescue. Read variously as economic fable, religious allegory, or imperialist fantasy, Crusoe has never lost its appeal as one of the most compelling adventure stories of all time. In addition to an introduction and helpful notes, this Broadview Edition includes a wide range of appendices that situate Defoe’s 1719 novel amidst castaway narratives, economic treatises, reports of cannibalism, explorations of solitude, and Defoe’s own writings on slavery and the African trade. A final appendix presents images of Crusoe’s rescue of Friday from a dozen of the most significant illustrated editions of the novel published between 1719 and 1920.

This collection derives from a conference held in Pretoria, South Africa, and discusses issues of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and the arts. It presents ideas about how to promote a deeper understanding of IKS within the arts, the development of IKS-arts research methodologies, and the protection and promotion of IKS in the arts. Knowledge, embedded in song, dance, folklore, design, architecture, theatre, and attire, and the visual arts can promote innovation and entrepreneurship, and it can improve communication. IKS, however, exists in a post-millennium, modernizing Africa. It is then the concept of post-Africanism that would induce one to think along the lines of a globalized, cosmopolitan and essentially modernized Africa. The book captures leading trends and ideas that could help to protect, promote, develop and affirm indigenous knowledge and systems, whilst also making room for ideas that do not necessarily oppose IKS, but encourage the modernization (not Westernization) of Africa.