Agrarian society signs of modernization industrial society table. Agrarian society

Instructions

The science of the development of society - sociology - uses the following typology to designate the stages of development of society: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. The creator of this typology, the American sociologist D. Bell, believed that with the change of each of these stages, a colossal change occurs in all spheres of human life: production technologies and the form of ownership, the way of life of people, science, radically change, political structure and social institutions.

Before industrial society was based on agriculture, and its basis was a traditional society, where the fate of a person was completely determined by his origin.

Industrial society emerged in the last third of the 18th century. Its appearance was facilitated by the industrial revolution, which was characterized by a serious industrial, scientific and cultural upsurge, a fundamentally new level of development of industrial relations.

The Industrial Revolution began with cotton, which was originally exported to Europe from India. The price of cotton was quite high. In 1785, the mechanical weaving machine was invented, which was able to increase labor productivity almost forty times. At the same time, a spinning machine driven by a water motor was developed. In the same years, the first steam engine was created, whose use gave impetus to the development of metallurgy. As a result, the demand for hard coal has grown significantly.

With the development of metallurgy and the production of fabrics, with an increase in the demand for coal, new need- the transportation of goods in large volumes was required. Also now it was required to shorten fare... It took the massive creation and construction of roads and canals, and, as a result, the inventor D. Stephenson created the first steam locomotive, and in 1825 the first Railway, which allowed the country to become the first industrial power in the world.

Further, the industrial society began to spread throughout the world, often the industrial revolution coincided with the change social order, the industrial revolution coexisted with the political revolution: the feudal system was replaced by the bourgeois one. In France, the industrial revolution coincided with the bourgeois revolution of 1789-1794, in Germany it took place a little later, in the middle of the 19th century. In the United States of America, the Industrial Revolution coincided with the War of Independence 1775-1783 and the Civil War of 1861-1865, as a result of which the United States became a leader in the development of metallurgy, mining, mechanical engineering and invention. The Meiji Revolution in Japan in 1868 also contributed to the change of the traditional feudal system to the bourgeois one, resulting in an unprecedented economic upsurge in 1875-1895.

In Russia, the industrial revolution took place in the last quarter of the 20th century. Serfdom and a variety of judicial and economic reforms, which allowed Russia by the beginning of the twentieth century to achieve a significant industrial rise and catch up with the developed European countries.

The emergence of the industrial system in all states was characterized by the growth of cities, or urbanization, a decrease in the volume of agriculture, an increase in life expectancy, an increase in the quality of life, and the spread of education. Mass production, based on scientific and technical progress, labor automation arose, the concept of a market appeared, and a civil society was formed. The industrial society existed until the last quarter of the 20th century, being replaced by a post-industrial society.

Introduction

In the second half of the XX century. In Western sociology, the works of D. Bell, R. Aron, J. Fourastier, A. Touraine, J. Galbraith, Z. Brzezinski, O. Toffler and others created a three-stage typology of societies.

“In it, the evolution of society, based on anthropological data, is presented as having gone through three stages. The first stage is a hunting-gathering economy, when men were mainly engaged in hunting, and women - in gathering. Ethnographers called this stage of development savagery. During the Neolithic Revolution, about 10 thousand years. back there was a transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural and livestock farming, when gathering was replaced by the cultivation of plants, and hunting was the breeding of animals. This period was called barbarism. With the advent of cities and writing, early civilizations were formed. Such a society was called agrarian, or traditional. It existed before the industrial revolution of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, when, as a result of the use of the power of a pair and the use of machines, an industrial society emerged. "

Industrial Society

The transition to an industrial society arises as a result of the industrial revolution. Consequently, an industrial society was formed as a result and in the process of development machine production, the emergence of adequate forms of organization of human labor and the use of the achievements of technological progress. There is a kind of redistribution of the labor force: a drop in employment in the agricultural sector from 74-80% to 12-15%, an increase in the share of employment in industry to 85%, as well as a significant increase in the urban population. If we talk about the signs and basic features of an industrial society, then it is characterized by flow, mass production, automation and mechanization of labor, the development of markets for services and goods, the humanization of all economic relations, the formation of an integral civil society, a general increase in the role of governance. The formation of an industrial society was due to profound changes in the political, economic and cultural life of the people of the late Middle Ages.

The main features of an industrial society

1. a sharp increase agricultural and industrial production;

2. accelerated development of means of communication;

3. invention of the print press, radio and TV;

4. expanding opportunities for educational and educational activities;

5. massive urbanization;

6.increase average duration people's lives;

7. the formation of monopolies, the merging of banking and industrial capital;

8. increasing the upward mobility of the population;

9. division of labor on an international scale;

10. a significant increase in the vertical differentiation of the population (division of society into regions and "worlds").

Scientific literature contains many definitions of the concept of "society". So, in the narrow sense, it is a group of people who have united to perform any activity and communication, as well as a specific stage historical development country or people. In the broad - a part of the material world, isolated from nature, but closely connected with it, consisting of individuals with consciousness and will, including the ways of their interaction.

In the 20th century, R. Aron put forward a theory that was later refined by American sociologists and political scientists A. Toffler, D. Bell, Z. Brzezinski. It describes the progressive process of development of a backward society to an advanced one. In total, 3 stages were distinguished: agrarian (pre-industrial), industrial and post-industrial.

Agrarian society is the first stage of civilized development. In some sources it is also called traditional. Typical for Antiquity and the Middle Ages. However, it is inherent in some states at the present time. Mostly to the countries of the "third world" (Africa, Asia).

The following features of an agrarian society can be distinguished:

• The economy is based on primitive handicrafts and subsistence farming. Mostly hand tools are used. The industry is either very slightly developed or completely absent. Most of the population lives in the countryside, doing agriculture.
• Dominance of state, communal forms of ownership; and private is not inviolable. Material benefits are distributed depending on the position occupied by a person in the social hierarchy.
• The rates are slow.
• practically unchanged. A person is born in a certain class or caste and does not change his position throughout his life. The main social units are the community and the family.
• Conservative society. Any changes happen slowly and spontaneously.
• Human behavior is governed by beliefs, customs, corporate principles and norms. Self-reliance and individuality are discouraged. determines the norms of behavior for the individual. A person does not analyze his position, he seeks to adapt to the environment. He assesses everything that happens to him from the position of the social group to which he belongs.
• An agrarian society presupposes a strong power of the army and the church; the ordinary person is removed from politics.
• A limited number of educated people, the prevalence of oral information over written.
• Priority over economic, human life is perceived as the implementation of divine providence.

As a result of economic, political, social and spiritual development, agrarian society in most countries has passed into the industrial stage, which is characterized by growth in agriculture and industry in labor productivity, an increase in fixed capital, and an increase in incomes of the population.

New classes are emerging - the bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat. The number of peasants in the population is decreasing, and urbanization is taking place. The role of the state is growing. Agrarian society and industrial society opposed each other in all directions.

The post-industrial stage is characterized by the development of the service sector, bringing them to the fore, increasing the role of knowledge, science and information. Class distinctions are being erased, and the share of the middle class is increasing.

Agrarian society, from the Eurocentric point of view, is a backward, closed, primitive social organism, to which industrial and post-industrial civilizations are opposed by Western sociology.

The classical characteristics of an industrial society suggests that it is formed as a result of the development of machine production and the emergence of new forms of mass labor organization. Historically, this stage corresponded to the social situation in Western Europe in 1800-1960.

general characteristics

The generally accepted characteristic of an industrial society includes several fundamental features. What are they? First, an industrial society is based on a developed industry. There is a division of labor in it that contributes to increased productivity. Competition is an important feature. Without it, the characterization of industrial society would be incomplete.

Capitalism leads to the fact that it is actively growing entrepreneurial activity brave and initiative people. At the same time, civil society is developing, as well as the state administrative system. It becomes more efficient and more complex. An industrial society cannot be imagined without modern means of communication, urbanized cities and the high quality of life of the average citizen.

Technology development

Any characteristic of an industrial society, in short, includes such a phenomenon as the industrial revolution. It was she who allowed Great Britain to cease being an agrarian country, the first in human history. When the economy begins to rely not on the cultivation of crops, but on new industry, the first shoots of an industrial society appear.

At the same time, there is a noticeable redistribution of labor resources. The labor force is leaving Agriculture and goes to the city for factories. Up to 15% of the population of the state remains in the agricultural sector. The growth of the urban population is also contributing to the revitalization of trade.

In production, entrepreneurial activity becomes the main factor. The presence of this phenomenon is the characteristic of an industrial society. Briefly, this relationship was first described by the Austrian and American economist Joseph Schumpeter. On this path, society at some point experiences scientific and technological revolution... After that, the post-industrial period begins, which already corresponds to the present.

Free society

Together with the onset of industrialization, society becomes socially mobile. This allows people to break the framework that exists under the traditional order, characteristic of the Middle Ages and the agrarian economy. In the state, the boundaries between the estates are blurred. Caste disappears in them. In other words, people can get rich and become successful thanks to their efforts and skills, without looking back at their own origins.

The characteristic of an industrial society is significant economic growth due to an increase in the number of highly qualified specialists. In society, technicians and scientists are in the first place, who determine the future of the country. This order is also called technocracy or the power of technology. The work of merchants, advertising specialists and other people occupying a special position in the social structure is becoming more significant and weighty.

Folding nation states

Scientists have determined that the main characteristics of an industrial society boil down to the fact that it is industrial and becomes dominant in all areas of life from culture to economy. Together with urbanization and changes in social stratification, the emergence of nation-states, formed around a common language, is taking place. Also, the unique culture of the ethnic group plays an important role in this process.

In medieval agrarian society, the national factor was not so significant. In the Catholic kingdoms of the XIV century, belonging to one or another feudal lord was much more important. Even armies existed on a recruitment basis. It was only in the 19th century that the principle of national recruitment into the state armed forces was finally formed.

Demography

Is changing demographic situation... What is the characteristic of an industrial society hidden here? Signs of change boil down to a decline in fertility in one average family. People devote more time to their own education, standards in relation to the presence of offspring are changing. All this affects the number of children in one classical “cell of society”.

But at the same time, the mortality rate is falling. This is due to the development of medicine. Medical services and medicines are becoming more accessible to a wide segment of the population. Life expectancy increases. The population dies more in old age than in youth (for example, from disease or war).

Consumer society

The enrichment of people in the industrial era led to the emergence of the main motive of the labor of its members is the desire to buy and acquire as much as possible. Is emerging new system values, which is built around the importance of material wealth.

The term was coined by the German sociologist Erich Fromm. In this context, he stressed the importance of reducing working hours, increasing the proportion of free time, and blurring the boundaries between classes. This is the characteristic of an industrial society. The table shows the main features of this period of human development.

Mass culture

The classic characteristic of an industrial society in terms of spheres of life says that consumption increases in each of them. Production begins to focus on the standards that define the so-called This phenomenon is one of the most striking features of an industrial society.

What is it? Popular culture formulates the basic psychological attitudes of the consumer society in the industrial era. Art is becoming available to everyone. It either willingly or unwillingly promotes certain norms of behavior. They can be called fashion or lifestyle. In the West, the flourishing of mass culture was accompanied by its commercialization and the creation of show business.

John Gelbraith's theory

Industrial society has been extensively studied by many scientists of the 20th century. One of the prominent economists in this line is John Galbraith. He substantiated several fundamental laws, with the help of which the characteristics of an industrial society are formulated. At least 7 provisions of his theory became fundamental for new and modern trends.

Gelbraith believed that the development of an industrial society led not only to the establishment of capitalism, but also to the creation of monopolies. Large corporations in the economic conditions of the free market make wealth and absorb competitors. They control production, trade, capital, and progress in science and technology.

Strengthening the economic role of the state

An important characteristic, according to the theory of John Galbraith, is that in a country with a similar system of relationships, the state increases its intervention in the economy. Before that, in the agrarian era of the Middle Ages, the authorities simply did not have the resources to radically influence the market. In an industrial society, the situation is exactly the opposite.

The economist, in his own way, noted the development of technology in a new era. By this term, he meant the application of systematized new knowledge in production. Demands lead to the fact that corporations and the state triumph in the economy. This is due to the fact that it is they who become the owners of unique scientific production developments.

At the same time, Gelbraith believed that under industrial capitalism the capitalists themselves had lost their former influence. Now having money didn’t mean power and importance at all. Instead of owners, scientific and technical specialists come to the fore, who can propose new modern inventions and production methods. This is the characteristic of an industrial society. According to Galbraith's plan, the former working class is being eroded under these conditions. The strained relations between proletarians and capitalists are coming to naught thanks to technical progress and the equalization of the incomes of graduates.

The development of society is a stepwise process, which is a movement upward from the simplest economy to a more efficient, advanced one.

In the XX century, well-known political scientists and sociologists put forward a theory according to which society overcomes three stages of its development: agrarian, industrial and post-industrial. Let us dwell in more detail on the agrarian society.

Agrarian society by types, traits, signs, characteristics

Agrarian, traditional or pre-industrial society is based on the traditional values ​​of humanity. This type of society sees the main goal of preserving the traditional way of life, does not accept any changes and does not strive for development.

Agrarian society is characterized by a traditional economy, which is characterized by redistribution, and the manifestation of market relations and exchange is rigidly suppressed. In traditional society, the priority of the attention of the state and the ruling elite over the individual's own interests is observed. All politics is based on an authoritarian type of government.

A person's status in society is determined by his birth. The whole society is divided into classes, movement between which is impossible. The estate hierarchy is again based on the traditional way of life.

The agrarian society is characterized by high mortality and birth rates. And at the same time, a low life expectancy. Very strong family ties.

The preindustrial type of society persisted for a long time in many countries of the East.

Economic features of agrarian civilization and culture

The basis of traditional society is agriculture, the main components of which are agriculture, cattle breeding or fishing in coastal areas.

The priority of a certain type of economy depends on the climatic conditions and the geographical location of the place of settlement.

The agrarian society itself is completely dependent on nature and its conditions, while a person does not make changes to these forces, not trying to tame them.

For a long time, subsistence farming prevailed in pre-industrial society.

The industry is either absent or negligible. Handicraft work is poorly developed. All work is aimed at satisfying basic human needs; society does not even try to strive for more. Extra hours of work are recognized by society as a punishment.

A person inherits a profession and occupation from their parents. The lower estates are overly devoted to the higher, hence such a system of state power as the monarchy.

All values ​​and culture in general are dominated by traditions.

Traditional agrarian society

As already mentioned, an agrarian society is based on the simplest handicrafts and agriculture. The time frame for the existence of this society is the Ancient World and the Middle Ages.

At that time, the economy was based on the use of natural resources without any changes of the latter. Hence the small development of tools of labor, which remain hand-held for a very long time.

IN economic sphere life of society is dominated by:

• building;


• extractive industries;


• natural economy.

There is trade, but it is insignificantly developed, and the development of the market is not encouraged by the authorities.

Traditions give a person an already established system of values, in which religion and the undeniable authority of the head of state play the main role. Culture is based on the traditional reverence for its own history.

The process of transforming traditional agrarian civilization

Agrarian society is quite resistant to any changes, since it is based on traditions and a well-established way of life.

The transformations are so slow that they are invisible to a single person. The transformations are much easier for states that are not fully traditional.

As a rule, this is a society with developed market relations- Greek city-states, trading cities of England and Holland, Ancient Rome.

The impetus for the irreversible transformation of the agrarian civilization was the industrial revolution of the 18th century.

Any transformation in such a society is very painful for a person, especially if religion was the foundation for a traditional society. A person loses reference points and values. At this time, there is a strengthening of the authoritarian regime. All changes in society are completed by the demographic transition, in which the psychology of the younger generation is changing.

Industrial and post-industrial agrarian society

Industrial society is characterized by a sharp leap in the development of industry. A sharp increase in the pace economic growth... This society is characterized by the "optimism of modernizers" - an unshakable confidence in science, with the help of which it is possible to solve any problems that have arisen, including social ones.

In this society, a purely consumer attitude towards nature is the maximum development of available resources, pollution of nature. Industrial society lives in one day, striving to meet social and domestic needs in full here and now.

The postindustrial society is just beginning its development path.

In a post-industrial society, the first place is taken by:

• high tech;
• information;
• knowledge.

Industry is giving way to the service sector. Knowledge and information have become the main commodity in the market. Science is no longer recognized as omnipotent.

Humanity is finally beginning to realize all the negative consequences that have befallen nature after the development of the industry. Social values ​​are changing. Ecology preservation and nature protection come to the fore.

The main factor and sphere of production of an agrarian society

The main factor of production for an agrarian society is land. That is why the agrarian society practically excludes mobility, since it completely depends on the place of its residence.

The main sphere of production is agriculture. All production is based on the procurement of raw materials and food. All members of society, first of all, strive to satisfy everyday needs. The economy is based on the family economy. Such a sphere may not always satisfy all human needs, but most of them for sure.

Agrarian State and Agrarian Fund

The Agrarian Fund is a state apparatus that provides the country with proper food. Its main task is to support the development of agricultural business in the country. The fund is responsible for the import and export of agricultural products, and distributes products within the country.

Human civilization needs high-quality food products that can only be provided by developed agriculture. At the same time, it is important to take into account that agriculture has never been a highly profitable production. Entrepreneurs abandon this type of business as soon as they face difficulties and lose profits.

IN this case the agrarian policy of the state helps agricultural production by allocating the necessary funds to compensate for possible losses.

IN developed countries Rural lifestyle and family farming are gaining more and more popularity.

Agricultural modernization

Agrarian modernization is based on an increase in the rate of development of agricultural production and sets itself the following tasks:

• creation of a new model of economic growth in agriculture;


• creating favorable economic trends for the agricultural business;


• improving rural infrastructure;


• attracting the young generation to the village for life and work;


• assistance in solving land problems;


• environmental protection.

The main assistant of the state in modernization is private business... Therefore, the state is obliged to meet halfway of the agricultural business and help its development in every possible way.

Modernization will allow to bring agricultural and agricultural production to the proper level in the country, improve the quality of food, create additional jobs in the countryside and increase the standard of living of the population of the entire country as a whole.

You can learn more about the modernization of the agricultural sector of the economy at the annual exhibition "Agroprodmash".