Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time before there were

machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

s and

tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...

s to help perform tasks ''en masse''. Pre-industrial civilization dates back to centuries ago, but the main era known as the pre-industrial society occurred right before the

industrial society In sociology, an industrial society is a society driven by the use of technology and machinery to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the Western world ...

. Pre-Industrial societies vary from region to region depending on the culture of a given area or history of social and political life. Europe was known for its

feudal system Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring socie ...

and the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

. The term "pre-industrial" is also used as a benchmark for environmental conditions before the development of industrial society: for example, the

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was ...

, adopted in Paris on 12 December, 2015 and in force from 4 November, 2016, "aims to limit

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees

celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius temperature scale "Celsius temperature scale, also called centigrade temperature scale, scale based on 0 ° for the melting point of water and 100 ° for the boiling point ...

, compared to ''pre-industrial'' levels." The date for the end of the "pre-industrial era" is not defined.

Common attributes

* Limited

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Extreme

agricultural economy Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specif ...

* Limited

division of labor The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (Departmentalization, specialisation). Individuals, organisations, and nations are endowed with or acquire specialis ...

. In pre-industrial societies, production was relatively simple and the number of specialized crafts was limited. * Limited variation of

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

es *

Parochialism Parochialism is the state of mind whereby one focuses on small sections of an issue rather than considering its wider context. More generally, it consists of being narrow in scope. In that respect, it is a synonym of " provincialism". It may, pa ...

—

Communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

s were limited between communities in pre-industrial societies. Few had the opportunity to see or hear beyond their own village. Industrial societies grew with the help of faster means of communication, having more

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

at hand about the world, allowing

knowledge transfer Knowledge transfer refers to transferring an awareness of facts or practical skills from one entity to another.Kjell Arne Røvik (2016). "Knowledge Transfer as Translation: Review and Elements of an Instrumental Theory." ''International Journa ...

and

cultural diffusion In cultural anthropology and cultural geography, cultural diffusion, as conceptualized by Leo Frobenius in his 1897/98 publication ''Der westafrikanische Kulturkreis'', is the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technolo ...

between them. * Populations grew at substantial rates Cipolla, Carlo M. Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000–1700. New York: Norton, 1976 * Social classes: peasants and lordsPersson, Karl Gunnar. Pre-industrial Economic Growth: Social Organization, and Technological Progress in Europe. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988. *

Subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing and shelter) rather than to the market. Definition "Subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself and family at a minimum level. Basic subsiste ...

level of living * Population dependent on

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

s for food * People were located in

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

s rather than in

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Economic systems

Hunter gather society A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wi ...

Commodity market A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. The primary sector includes agricultural products, energy products, and metals. Soft commodities may be perishable and harvested, w ...

Mercantilism Mercantilism is a economic nationalism, nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources ...

Subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...

Labor conditions

Harsh working conditions had been prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took place. Pre-industrial society was very static, and

child labour Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...

, dirty living conditions, and long working hours were not as equally prevalent before the Industrial Revolution.R.M. Hartwell, ''The Industrial Revolution and Economic Growth'', Methuen and Co., 1971, pp. 339–41

References

Bibliography

* Grinin, L. 2007. Periodization of History: A theoretic-mathematical analysis. In
''History & Mathematics''
Ed. by Leonid Grinin, Victor de Munck, and

Andrey Korotayev Andrey Vitalievich Korotayev (; born 17 February 1961) is a Russian anthropology, anthropologist, economic history, economic historian, comparative politics, comparative political scientist, demography, demographer and sociology, sociologist ...

. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. P.10-38. . {{Authority control Sociological terminology Industrial Revolution

Common attributes

Economic systems

Labor conditions

See also

References

Bibliography