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Chapter 5 Social Structure 159
Section 4
Industrial and Postindustrial Societies
Key Terms
• industrial society
• mechanization
• urbanization
• Gemeinschaft
• social solidarity
• mechanical solidarity • organic solidarity
• postindustrial society
• Gesellschaft
Basic Features of Industrial Societies
The Industrial Revolution created a society that is dependent upon sci- ence and technology to produce its basic goods and services. Sociologists call this an industrial society.
What happens when agricultural societies become industrial societies? Neil Smelser (1976) has identified some basic structural changes that occur in societies shifting from an agricultural to an industrial base. Industrialism brings with it a change—away from simple, traditional technology (plows, hammers, harnesses) toward the application of scientific knowledge to create more complex technological devices. Early examples of
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The Industrial Revolution created a new type of so- ciety, called industrial society. Characteristics that distin- guish this society from all earlier ones include the growth of large cities and a wide-spread dependence on machines and technology. Postindustrial society has a predominately white-collar labor force that is concen- trated in service industries. Social instability has been linked to the transition from an industrial to a postindus- trial society.
industrial society
a society that depends on science and technology to produce its basic goods and services
Ford Motor Company employees work on the Model T assembly line. What technology underlies industrial society?
