Resistance to Western influence was pathologized as laggard traditionalism
Evidence
In the field of mass communication, Everett Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovations is about how new ideas could be spread in traditional societies. Rogers concluded that those who were not open to “innovation” introduced by the West were best understood as “laggards.” In short, those who resisted Western propaganda/“innovation” were seen not as individuals acting in their own interests or resisting imperial intervention but rather as hidebound traditionalists blocking progress. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 250
Categorization
- XREF: Rogers’s ‘laggard’ framing directly parallels later post-9/11 characterizations of Muslims resisting Westernization/modernity as the problem. Ties to Aziz on the ‘moderate vs. radical Muslim’ binary. — connects to: Resistance to Western influence was pathological as backwardness rather than legitimate agency; Modernization theory pathologized resistance to Western influence as laggard traditionalism, not rational choice — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 262; Discourses of civilization and modernity relied on repressing the non-Western Other — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 484 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Resistance to Western influence was pathological as backwardness rather than legitimate agency
#corroborates(0.98) - Modernization theory pathologized resistance to Western influence as laggard traditionalism, not rational choice
#expands(0.97) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 262 - Discourses of civilization and modernity relied on repressing the non-Western Other
#expands(0.77) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 484 - Orientalist historiography equates all change with Westernization and erases anti-colonial resistance
#complicates(0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 768