Everyone has heard of such concepts as the industrial age and industrialization, but few can succinctly characterize them. Well, let's try to figure it out.
Industrial society: what it is
This era is characterized by a type of social relations based on the division of labor, and industry is able to provide people with a comfortable life. It is an intermediate option between traditional and information (post-industrial) society.
Despite the fact that historians call the modern way of life post-industrial, it has many "industrial" features. After all, we still ride the subway, burn coal in boiler houses, and sometimes the cable phone reminds us of the industrial Soviet past with its shrill call.
Prerequisites for industrial society
The entry of European society onto the path of progress is a gradual process characterized by a change from feudal to capitalist relations.
New time (the era of industrialization) is the period from 16 to 19 (beginning of 20)centuries Over these three centuries, European society has come a long way of development, covering all spheres of human life:
- Economic.
- Political.
- Social.
- Technological.
- Spiritual.
The process of gradual innovation is called modernization.
The transition to an industrial society is characterized by:
- Division of labor. This is what caused the increase in output, as well as the formation of two economic classes: the proletariat (wage workers) and the bourgeoisie (capitalists). The result of the division of labor was the formation of a new economic system - capitalism.
- Colonialism - the domination of developed European countries over the economically backward states of the East. It is clear that the colonizer exploits the human and natural resources of the dependent country.
- The scientific and technological revolution. Advances in science and engineering have changed people's lives.
An industrial society is characterized by the following features
- Urbanization.
- Transition to capitalism.
- The advent of the consumer society.
- Global market formation.
- Reducing the influence of the church on human life.
- Formation of mass culture.
- The huge impact of science on people's lives.
- The emergence of two new classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
- Decrease in the number of peasants.
- Industrialization.
- Changing the worldview of people(human individuality is the highest value).
Industrial revolution in European countries
As mentioned earlier, an industrial society is characterized by industrialization. We list in turn the countries of the Old World in which this process took place:
1. England is the first European country to embark on the path of progress. Already in the 16th century, the flying shuttle and the steam engine were invented. The 17th century can generally be called the century of inventions: the first steam locomotive made its way from Manchester to Liverpool. In 1837, the scientists Cook and Winston created the electromagnetic telegraph.
2. France "losed" a little in the industrialization of England due to strong feudal orders. However, the past revolution of 1789-1794 changed the situation: machines appeared, and weaving began to develop actively. The 18th century is notable for the development of the textile and ceramic industries. The final stage of French industrialization is the birth of mechanical engineering. Summing up, we can say that France has become the second country to choose the capitalist path of development.
3. Germany lagged far behind the pace of modernization of its predecessors. The German industrial type of society is characterized by the appearance of the steam engine in the middle of the 19th century. As a result, the pace of industrial development in Germany gained impressive momentum, and the country became the leader in production in Europe.
What is common betweentraditional and industrial society
These two fundamentally different ways of life have the same features. Traditional and industrial society are characterized by:
- presence of economic and political sphere;
- apparatus of power;
- social inequality - observed in any type of social relations, since all people are different, regardless of the era.
Economy of industrial society
Compared to the agrarian relations of the Middle Ages, the modern economy was more productive.
How is the economy of an industrial society characterized, what distinguishes it?
- Mass production.
- Development of the banking sector..
- The emergence of credit.
- The emergence of a global market.
- Cyclical crises (eg overproduction).
- The class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie.
Major economic change was driven by a division of labor that boosted productivity.
The English economist Adam Smith described it perfectly. He gave an example with the production of pins, which can clearly understand what the "division of labor" is.
An experienced craftsman produces only 20 pins a day. If, however, the production process is divided into simple operations, each of which will be performed by an individual worker, labor productivity will increase many times over. As a result, it turns out that a team of 10 people producesabout 48 thousand pins!
Social structure
The industrial society is characterized by the following features that have changed people's daily lives:
- population explosion;
- increased life expectancy;
- baby boom (40-50s of the twentieth century);
- deterioration of the environment (harmful emissions increase with the development of industry);
- the emergence of a partner family instead of the traditional one - consists of parents and children;
- complicated social structure;
- social inequality between people.
Mass culture
What characterizes an industrial society besides capitalism and industrialization? Popular culture: it is an integral part of it.
Kept pace with the scientific and technological revolution. Recording technology, cinematography, radio and other media have emerged - they have combined the tastes and preferences of most people.
Mass culture is simple and understandable to all segments of the population, its purpose is to evoke a certain emotional response from a person. It is designed to satisfy fleeting requests, as well as to entertain people.
Here are examples of popular culture:
- Women's novels.
- Glossy magazines.
- Show.
- Comics.
- TV series.
- Detectives and science fiction.
The genres of literature indicated in the last paragraph are traditionally considered to be mass culture. But some social scientists do not share thispoint of view. For example, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is a series of detective stories written in artistic language and having many meanings. But the books of Alexandra Marinina can be safely attributed to mass culture - they are easy to read and have a clear plot.
What society do we live in
Western sociologists have introduced such a concept as the information (post-industrial) society. Its values are knowledge, the development of information technology, the safety of people and care for our big home - the wonderful green Earth.
Indeed, knowledge plays an increasingly important role in our lives, and information technology has touched almost any person.
But, despite this, the industry continues to work, cars burn gasoline, and potatoes are harvested as they were harvested 100 years ago in the fall. The industrial type of society, as mentioned earlier, is characterized precisely by industry. And picking potatoes is agriculture that dates back to time immemorial.
Therefore, the name of today's era "post-industrial" is a beautiful abstraction. It is more logical to call our society industrial with informational features.
Industrial society is characterized by many useful discoveries and human visits to space.
The store of knowledge accumulated today is enormous; another thing is that it can both benefit humanity and cause harm. We hope that a person will have enough intelligence to apply the accumulated potential of knowledge in the right direction.
