Kazakhstan’s Society Modernization in Response to the 21st Century Global Challenges: The Material Aspect and the Shifting Discourse Issue

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the current aspects of former Soviet society modernization in the context of global challenges of the 21st century. The study uses Kazakhstan as an example. The primary focus of this paper is on the comparative analysis of the global dynamics of economic development trends regarding OECD and Kazakhstan. The study’s methodology entails a historiographical analysis of recent works on modernization issues in contemporary societies. Modernization is seen as a part of the complicated process of the world becoming more global as the capitalist system changes. Modernization phenomena are analyzed quantitatively and phenomenologically within the framework of the research methodology. The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze statistical data on economic development in Kazakhstan. The applied quantitative analysis techniques constructed a regression model of modernization prospects based on the factor of labour productivity and gross savings. Qualitative interpretations in this study were based on phenomenological and analytical approaches in the philosophical sciences. This study focused on a new theory of modernization that views it from the perspective of social acceleration and the pursuit of sustainability in the protection of traditional spirituality within the context of modernization. In practice, this model enables the exploration of various modernization trajectories. It will be useful in the creation of the corresponding state development programmes of Kazakhstan. In this way, the spiritual modernization of society will help build a work ethic, an economy based on knowledge and innovation, a social consensus, and a space where people from different backgrounds can live together.