The core ideas of this website were developed by Erik van ’t Klooster in the winter of 2026. Further refinement took place in the spring and summer of that year, following the presentation of an extended abstract at the MID Conference 2026 in Romania in April and a lecture series at Komatsu University in Japan in June. These presentations helped finalize the precise topic, theoretical model, research perspectives, and the structure of chapters, paragraphs, and argumentation within those paragraphs.
Subsequently, related notes and drafts were refined through iterative prompts with Grok (built by xAI). What began as targeted requests to condense, reorganize, and integrate Inglehart and Welzel’s modernization theory evolved into a sustained collaborative process that produced concise, coherent 300-word sections while strengthening thematic consistency across the historical narrative, the analysis of contemporary challenges, and the proposed solutions. Extensive reviews of these sections concluded the collaboration between Grok and Erik by the end of July 2026.
