Industrialisation
Encyclopedia : I : IN : IND : Industrialisation
Industrialisation, industrialization or an industrial revolution (in general, with lowercase letters) is a process of social and economic change whereby a human society is transformed from a pre-industrial (an economy where the amount of capital accumulated is low) to an industrial state (see Pre-industrial society). This social and economic change is closely intertwined with technological innovation, particularly the development of large-scale energy production and metallurgy. Industrialisation is also related to some form of philosophical change, or to a different attitude in the perception of nature, though whether these philosophical changes are caused by industrialisation or vice-versa is subject to debate.
Industrialisation has spawned its own health problems. Modern stressors include noise, air, water pollution, poor nutrition, dangerous machinery, impersonal work, isolation, poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse. Health problems in industrial nations are as much caused by economic, social, political, and cultural factors as by pathogens. Industrialisation has become a major medical issue world wide, and hopefully will become less of a problem over the upcoming years.
When capitalised, Industrial Revolution refers to the first industrial revolution, which took place in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Second Industrial Revolution describes later, somewhat less dramatic changes which came about with the widespread availability of electric power, the internal-combustion engine and assembly lines.
Most pre-industrial economies had standards of living not much above subsistence, meaning that the majority of the population were focused on producing their means of survival. (In medieval Europe, 80% of the labour force were employed in subsistence agriculture).
Some pre-industrial economies, such as Ancient Athens, have had trade and commerce as significant factors, enjoying wealth far beyond a sustenance standard of living. Famines were frequent in most pre-industrial societies, although some, such as the Netherlands and England of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Italian city states of the 15th century and the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were able to escape the famine cycle through increasing trade and commercialisation of the agricultural sector. It is estimated that 17th century Netherlands imported nearly 70% of its grain supply and 5th century BC Athens imported 75% of its total food supply.
Many third world countries began industrialisation under the influence of either the United States or the USSR during the Cold War. This effort has been successful in many East Asian countries and less successful in other areas (excluding some late industrialisers in Europe that were already progressing fast before the second world war).
The currently prevailing "development paradigm" in the international development community (which means the World Bank, OECD, many United Nations departments and some other such organisations) is poverty reduction, which pays attention to economic growth as such, but does not recognise traditional industrialisation policies as being beneficial in the longer term (with the perception that it simply creates inefficient local industry that is useless in a free-trade dominated world).
References
- Bernal, John Desmond. Science and Industry in the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970, ISBN 0253201284.
- Derry, Thomas Kingston and Trevor I. Williams. A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. New York: Dover Publications, 1993, ISBN 0486274721.
- Hobsbawm, Eric J.. Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day. New York: New Press; Distributed by W.W. Norton, 1999, ISBN 1565845617.
- Kranzberg, Melvin and Carroll W. Pursell, Jr. editors. Technology in Western civilization. New York, Oxford University Press, 1967.
- Landes, David S. The Unbound Prometheus: Technical Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. 2nd ed.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0521826667.
See also
- Automation
- Newly industrialized countries
- History of the Soviet Union: Stalinist industrialization
- Pre-industrial society
- Deindustrialization
External links
- [Winds of Change: Reforms and Unions] — The impacts of industrialisation in Canada (illustrated with many late 19th photographs)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.