Industrialisation

Further information: History of industrialisation
The effect of Industrialisation shown by rising income levels since 1500. The graph shows the gross domestic product (at purchasing power parity) per capita between 1500 and 1950 in 1990 International dollars for selected nations.[1]
Map showing the global distribution of industrial output in 2005, based on a percentage of the top producing state, the United States

Industrialisation or industrialization is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one, involving the extensive re-organisation of an economy for the purpose of manufacturing.[2]

As industrial workers' incomes rise, markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds tend to expand and provide a further stimulus to industrial investment and economic growth.

Background

The first transformation to an industrial economy from an agricultural one, known as the Industrial Revolution, took place from the mid-18th to early 19th century in certain areas in Europe and North America; starting in Great Britain, followed by Belgium, Germany, and France. Later commentators have called this the first industrial revolution.[3][4]

The "Second Industrial Revolution" labels the later changes that came about in the mid-19th century after the refinement of the steam engine, the invention of the internal combustion engine, the harnessing of electricity and the construction of canals, railways and electric-power lines. The invention of the assembly line gave this phase a boost.[5][6][7]

By the end of the 20th century, East Asia had become one of the most recently industrialised regions of the world.[8]

There is considerable literature on the factors facilitating industrial modernisation and enterprise development.[9]

Social consequences

Urbanisation

Main article: Urbanisation

The concentration of labour into factories has brought about the rise of large towns to serve and house the factory workers.

Exploitation

Main articles: Exploitation and Exploitation of natural resources

Workers have to leave their family in order to come to work in the towns and cities where the industries are found.

Changes in family structure

The family structure changes with industrialisation. The sociologist Talcott Parsons noted that in pre-industrial societies there is an extended family structure spanning many generations who probably remained in the same location for generations. In industrialised societies the nuclear family, consisting of only parents and their growing children, predominates. Families and children reaching adulthood are more mobile and tend to relocate to where jobs exist. Extended family bonds become more tenuous.[10]

Current situation

GDP composition of sector and labour force by occupation. The green, red, and blue components of the colours of the countries represent the percentages for the agriculture, industry, and services sectors, respectively.

Currently the "international development community" (World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), many United Nations departments, and some other organisations) endorses development policies like water purification or primary education and Co-Operation amongst third world communities.[11] There are members of the Economic communities who don't believe in recognising that contemporary industrialisation policies as being adequate to the global south (Third World countries) or beneficial in the longer term, with the perception that it could only create inefficient local industries unable to compete in the free-trade dominated political order which it has created.

The relationship between economic growth, employment and poverty reduction is complex. Higher productivity is argued to be leading to lower employment (see jobless recovery).[12] There are differences across sectors, whereby manufacturing is less able than the tertiary sector to accommodate both increased productivity and employment opportunities; over 40% of the world's employees are "working poor" whose incomes fail to keep themselves and their families above the $2 a day poverty line.[12] There is also a phenomenon of deindustrialisation, such as in the former USSR countries' transition to market economies, and the agriculture sector often is the key sector in absorbing the resultant unemployment.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Depicting data excerpted from Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History by Angus Maddison, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-922721-1, p. 382, Table A.7.
  2. ↑ Sullivan, Arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 472. ISBN 0-13-063085-3. OCLC 50237774.
  3. ↑ "Industrial Revolution". Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  4. ↑ Pollard, Sidney: Peaceful Conquest.The Industrialisation of Europe 1760–1970, Oxford 1981.
  5. ↑ Buchheim, Christoph: Industrielle Revolutionen. Langfristige Wirtschaftsentwicklung in Großbritannien, Europa und in Übersee, München 1994, S. 11-104.
  6. ↑ Jones, Eric: The European Miracle: Environments, Economics and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia, 3. ed. Cambridge 2003.
  7. ↑ Henning, Friedrich-Wilhelm: Die Industrialisierung in Deutschland 1800 bis 1914, 9. Aufl., Paderborn/München/Wien/Zürich 1995, S. 15-279.
  8. ↑ Industry & Enterprise: An International Survey Of Modernisation & Development, ISM/Google Books, revised 2nd edition, 2003. ISBN 978-0-906321-27-0.
  9. ↑ Lewis F. Abbott, Theories Of Industrial Modernisation & Enterprise Development: A Review, ISM/Google Books, revised 2nd edition, 2003. ISBN 978-0-906321-26-3.
  10. ↑ The effect of industrialisation on the family, Talcott Parsons, the isolated nuclear family. Blacks Academy. Educational Database . Accessed April 2008.
  11. ↑ United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Un.org (2008-05-20). Retrieved on 2013-07-29.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Claire Melamed, Renate Hartwig and Ursula Grant 2011. Jobs, growth and poverty: what do we know, what don't we know, what should we know? London: Overseas Development Institute

Further reading