Industrialization as a Historical Phenomenon

Industrialization is described as a historical succession of periods of pervasive adoption of clusters of technological and organizational innovations. Combined they have enabled vast increases in industrial output, productivity, and incomes, as well as reductions in the amount of time worked. The resource and environmental intensiveness of different industrialization paths is illustrated with quantitative data on energy consumption and carbon emissions. It is concluded that industry is in principle moving in the right direction of dematerialization and decarbonization; however, to date it has not moved fast enough to compensate for increasing output volumes. Continued structural change from industry to services and from work to pleasure will require a redefinition of the scope of industrial activities from artifacts to integrated solutions to satisfy consumer service demands in an environmentally compatible manner.