Modernization refers to the process of transforming a traditional, rural, agrarian society into a secular, urban, industrial society. It is a continuous and open-ended process that involves profound economic, social, political, and cultural changes. The rise of modern society has been inextricably linked with the emergence of industrial society, and to modernize a society is, first of all, to industrialize it. The features that are associated with modernity can be shown to be related to the set of changes that brought into being the industrial type of society.

Some key points about modernization are:

• Modernization is a process of updating something or making it work in a contemporary setting.
• Modernity refers to a condition of social existence that is significantly different from all past forms of human experience, while modernization refers to the transitional process of moving from traditional or primitive communities to modern societies.
• Debates over modernity have been most prominent in the discipline of sociology, created in the nineteenth century specifically to come to terms with society as a novel form of human existence.
• Modernization theory refers to a body of theory that became prominent in the 1950s and 1960s in relation to understanding issues of economic and social development.

In summary, modernization is a complex and ongoing process that involves significant changes in various aspects of society.