World Industrialization

Introduction

The notion of industrialization is one of the few concepts that encourages the sciences of economics, management, sociology and history to share their modes of analysis and their “toolboxes”, if not totally, then partially and effectively. Despite these encounters between these different disciplines and scientific fields, this notion has never generated a sufficiently broad consensus to become a concept that is indisputable and applicable without great problems.

The fact that this notion has often been presented as synonymous with the notions of “industrial revolution”, “technological change” or “machinism” has not facilitated acceptance of these multi-disciplinary collaborations. For some authors, this notion will be treated as a fact that is repeated in different places and at different times, which is almost neutral because it only concerns the emergence of new technologies independently of existing social dynamics. The importance of this technological determinism in neoclassical approaches to enterprise and production before 1970 was described by Bruno Tinel (Tinel, 2007). This determinism was then reflected in the work of André Leroi-Gourhan (Leroi-Gourhan, 1973).

Other authors, returning to the traditional Ricardian analysis, will affirm that this notion had also been analyzed not in terms of its components and mode of operation, but mainly its effects on the level of work and employment or on international trade. Industrialization was seen as the result ...