I'm thinking of it in quasi-Spenglerian terms, as in the social, material substrate of a modern culture. Cultures have different material bases, and often these cut across national borders, so a civilization would include the infrastructures that link, for instance, European countries and their one-time colonies.

But I agree that "civilization" could be confusing if it were taken to imply imperialism.

I'm also thinking of the dictionary's sense of a "modern" society: "an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached."

I explain absolute modernity below:

https://medium.com/teatime-history/is-the-talk-of-our-modernity-just-an-empty-boast-eb40cb671cf8?sk=5c3900625ddfd572811a68b401111bae