INDUSTRIALIZATION

 the general process by which economies and societies in which agriculture and the production of handicrafts predominate become transformed into economics and societies where manufacturing and related extractive industries are central. This process occurred first in the UK during the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and was soon repeated in other Western European societies. Profound changes in the social organization of production and distribution are involved, especially a rapid increase in the DIVISION OF LABOUR, both between individuals and occupational groups and also between industrialized and nonindustrialized nations, changes which lead to a transformation of the techniques and the social organization of agriculture (see AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION) as well as of extractive and manufacturing industry (see FACTORY SYSTEM, MASS PRODUCTION).

Criteria for delineating countries as industrialized or industrializing vary The most commonly used indicators are:

the percentage of the labour force employed in the industrial and service sectors compared with primary production;

manufacturing output as a proportion of GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT (GNP). However, other criteria such as levels of investment (see ECONOMIC TAKEOFF), the extent of URBANIZATION, levels of literacy, etc., may also be used as more general indicators of industrialization and of MODERNIZATION and development. Thus a country such as New Zealand which is mainly an exporter of primary products, but with a highly modernized agriculture, high literacy, etc., may be regarded as an industrialized country in the most general sense of the term.

The process of industrialization is closely linked with the overall modernization of societies, especially the process of urbanization, the development of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, and POLITICAL MODERNIZATION. Each of these changes can be viewed as either:

a prerequisite of industrialization; or

a direct consequence or requirement of it; or

both of these.

While similarities exist in the overall pattern of industrialization in the first wave of European industrialized societies, important differences are also evident (e.g. in the role played by the state in initiating industrialization, limited in the UK but more extensive in Germany). Differences also exist between those countries which were part of the first wave of industrialization and those for which industrialization occurs later (e.g. whilst later entrants can gain advantage by learning from the mistakes of earlier entrants, they often find it difficult to compete with more established industrial economies, this sometimes restricting new entrants to a relationship of ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY) (see also IMPERIALISM, UNEQUAL EXCHANGE). As well as temporal differences of this sort, important regional differences also exist.