From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Industrialisation (also spelled
Industrialization) or an
Industrial Revolution 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 per capita is low) to an
industrial state (see
Pre-industrial society). It is a part of wider
modernisation process. 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. The world's first industrialised city was
Manchester in northwest
England.