The present era of change is being brought about by a whole cluster of technologies, some of which have an exceptional capacity for horizontal diffusion in all sectors of the economy and society and an equally exceptional capacity for cross-fertilization. Key technologies in this category include the microelectronics-information technologies complex, the biotechnologies, and the new materials science. This process of technological change spurs structural changes in the economy and society. Mature sectors such as machine tools and textiles can be rejuvenated by grafting new technologies onto their processes and products.
When this rejuvenation occurs in industrialized countries, these traditional sectors take the lead in international competition. Italy is a case in point, since Italian prosperity is in no small measure due to the restored competitiveness of such sectors. These sectors demonstrate a highly flexible approach to production, making possible less standardized products specifically designed to satisfy the tastes and needs of customers.
They also demonstrate considerable creativity through attention to design factors and closer links to the market and its fluctuations, attentiveness to moods and fashions with highly imaginative marketing, and a capacity to absorb new technology and indeed to interact with it to generate improvements and adaptations. The fact that in Italy these sectors tend to consist of dynamic, small- to medium-size firms organized in industrial districts is extremely important.
Such districts operate as coalitions of competitors, interdependent yet united by a common goal. This pattern encourages the diffusion of technology through all firms in the district. This is in marked contrast to experience elsewhere when competing firms tend to keep technological advances closely.
Mature sectors that undergo such technological renewal and then strive continually to keep abreast of technological developments and market trends can retain competitiveness even in the face of increasing international competition. This pattern is one of the elements suggesting that long-established concepts of comparative advantage and ensuing international division of labor must be challenged.
But the emerging technologies are not the exclusive domain of advanced countries, and their intelligent application in developing countries may speed up their economic growth and open possibilities for decentralized patterns of development. Until recently in the advanced countries, the main technological innovations in production have involved mass production and standardization.
The emerging technologies make it possible to give an effective answer to the demand for diversification, product customization, and personalization. Thus, the structure of supply is becoming more flexible and innovative.
In other words, it is now possible to combine small-scale production units with high productivity and high quality efficiently at increasingly accessible prices.
We may therefore say that small becomes beautiful again, although not in the sense that E. Schumacher used this phrase in the early s.
The pace of innovation is extremely rapid. No individual firm or country can hope to gain or retain technological and market superiority in any given area for long.
The pressure of competition and the rapid spread of production capabilities, innovative ideas, and new patterns of demand compel companies to measure themselves against rival firms at home and abroad early in the production cycle, and then rapidly exploit, in the widest possible market, any competitive advantages that arise from a lead in innovation.
We are witnessing a compression of the time scale by which new technology is introduced, with ever-shorter intervals between discovery and application. This compression is especially apparent in microelectronics and the information technologies, sectors in which international competition and academic and industrial research activities are intense.
This phenomenon is widely visible though not universal. In some sectors specifically, though not exclusively, those involving the life sciences longer periods are imposed by the need for testing to satisfy regulatory criteria. Examples here come from the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Simultaneously, firms acquire more strategic space in which to operate.
In the past, the smaller the firm, the narrower its natural geographic horizon. Today it is possible for both large and small firms to think in global terms. This new perspective implies the need for all interests, large and small, to seek arrangements such as transnational mergers, joint venture agreements, consortia, and shared production and licensing agreements with other companies.
The partners often bring complementary assets: investment capital, market shares in different geographic areas, technological capabilities in adjacent domains, and different strategic approaches to advance innovation. In this way returns in different countries can be maximized rapidly.
This worldwide change is being spearheaded by the industrial democracies—the countries that possess major resources in science and technology, innovative capability, and investment capital.
Not only is it created and developed on scientific bases, but it also generates fundamental scientific knowledge. The discovery of new superconducting materials, for example, is simultaneously a great scientific achievement that implies fundamental advances in our understanding of the behavior of matter in the solid state and a technological invention that is immediately open to extraordinary applications in many fields, from energy transmission to computers and from high-field magnets to nuclear fusion.
The development of artificial intelligence is another example of the increasingly scientific nature of technology; this effort requires the cooperation of the most disparate disciplines and in turn holds the potential for application in a wide variety of fields. These examples illustrate how the narrow, specialized, compartmentalized ways in which problems typically were approached in the past are giving way to a more global approach that breaks down the barriers of single disciplines to obtain a unified, cross-disciplinary vision.
Another unique aspect of the present technological revolution is that it brings about a dematerialization of society. In a sense, dematerialization is the logical outcome of an advanced economy in which material needs are substantially saturated. Throughout history there has been a direct correlation between increases in gross domestic product and consumption of raw materials and energy.
This is no longer automatically the case. According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, the amount of industrial raw materials needed for one unit of industrial production is now no more than two-fifths of what it was in , and this decline is accelerating. Thus, Japan, for example, in consumed only 60 percent of the raw materials required for the same volume of industrial output in The reason for this phenomenon is basically twofold. Increases in consumption tend to be concentrated on goods that have a high degree of value added, goods that contain a great deal of technology and design rather than.
For example, it is now possible to invent new energy sources that have energy densities far exceeding those of raw materials. One kilogram of uranium can produce the same amount of energy as 13 U. Decoupling of the amount of raw material needed for a given unit of economic output, income generation, and consumption of raw materials and energy is an essential element in the dematerialization process.
But present trends go beyond this. World society is becoming more open; interdependence is increasing. This is part of what is increasingly being termed the globalization of business and finance. The comparison between the various forms of trade and transactions is, however, a matter of concern.
It might be an indication that conditions for profit increasingly are more favorable in financial speculation than in capital investment in a world that still greatly needs economic growth and opportunities for employment.
First human, then water, and finally steam power were applied to operate power looms, carding machines, and other specialized equipment.
Another well-known innovation was the cotton gin, invented in the United States in This device spurred an increase in cotton cultivation and export from U. Chemicals This industry arose partly in response to the demand for improved bleaching solutions for cotton and other manufactured textiles. Other chemical research was motivated by the quest for artificial dyes, explosives, solvents, fertilizers, and medicines, including pharmaceuticals.
Transportation Concurrent with the increased output of agricultural produce and manufactured goods arose the need for more efficient means of delivering these products to market. The first efforts toward this end in Europe involved constructing improved overland roads. Canals were dug in both Europe and North America to create maritime corridors between existing waterways.
Steam engines were recognized as useful in locomotion, resulting in the emergence of the steamboat in the early 19 th century. High-pressure steam engines also powered railroad locomotives, which operated in Britain after Railways spread rapidly across Europe and North America, extending to Asia in the latter half of the 19 th century. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. The Industrial Revolution was the transition from creating goods by hand to using machines. Its start and end are widely debated by scholars, but the period generally spanned from about to According to some, this turning point in history is responsible for an increase in population, an increase in the standard of living, and the emergence of the capitalist economy.
Teach your students about the Industrial Revolution with these resources. Industrialization ushered much of the world into the modern era, revamping patterns of human settlement, labor, and family life. A map of westward expansion of the United States from the 18th to the 20th century. This financial frenzy is a powerful force in propagating the technological revolution, in particular its infrastructure, and enhancing — even exaggerating — the superiority of the new products, industries and generic technologies.
The ostentation of success pushes the logic of the new paradigm to the fore and makes it into the contemporary ideal of vitality and dynamism. At the same time, as mentioned before, all this excitement divides society, widening the gap between rich and poor and making it less and less tenable in social terms.
The economy also becomes unsustainable, due to the appearance of two growing imbalances. One is the mismatch between the profile of demand and that of potential supply. The very process by which intense investment was made possible by concentrating income at the upper end of the spectrum becomes an obstacle for the expansion of production of any particular product and for the attainment of full economies of scale. The other is the rift between paper values and real values.
So the system is structurally unstable and cannot grow indefinitely along that path. With the collapse comes recession — sometimes depression — bringing financial capital back to reality. This, together with mounting social pressure, creates the conditions for institutional restructuring.
In this atmosphere of urgency many of the social innovations, which gradually emerged during the period of installation, are likely to be brought together with new regulation in the financial and other spheres, to create a favorable context for recoupling and full unfolding of the growth potential.
This certainly seems to describe the Dotcom Bubble, which was not only destructive to speculators directly but the economy broadly, even as its excesses, particularly in terms of broadband build-up, funded the infrastructure that would fuel the Internet over the next two decades. It just seemed clear to me that the post Dotcom Bubble era had reached its natural endpoint as far as market structure was concerned; whatever came next would look significantly different.
I respect your view. Theories belong to the public. But I see the present as the s, the turning point of the IT surge. We have had 2 frenzies and we have not yet had a golden age. The important thing is that the previous revolutions had the Golden Age after the recession that follows the crash. And we could now perhaps have a global sustainable Golden Age. I think it is perfectly possible with the current technologies. What would be necessary to bring that Golden Age about? How do we need to tilt the playing field to make that happen?
The first thing we have to understand is that every Golden Age has had to do with social-political choices made by governments, because capitalism really only becomes legitimate when the greed of some is for the benefit of the many. The mass production revolution brought the post-War boom. Now what happened then?
If we look at the s, we have some similarities with today. We see xenophobia, we see a lot of people angry and following at that time fascism and communism, now all sorts of extremisms right and left, leaders that really offer heaven even though they cannot delivery, but the whole thing is that people are angry and disappointed.
But you also have something else which is very important, which is that there is an enormous technological potential which is not being used. Not enough investment is going in the possible innovations because there is not enough demand, and demand is normally created by some policies. But it has to be policies that are adequate for that particular revolution.
So what was the previous revolution? It was about mass production. So what was the direction in which it was tilted? Well, first of all it was the World War. And with the World War it was obvious that producing a lot of weapons made a lot of good business sense.
They became cheaper and better and so on. But then at the end of the war, governments did something very important: they created a set of policies that favored suburbanization.
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