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Alf Hornborg

Alf Hornborg

Professor emeritus

Alf Hornborg

Industrial Societies

Author

  • Alf Hornborg

Editor

  • James D. Wright

Summary, in English

The concept of ‘industrial society’ is generally used for a type of social organization based on mass production of commodities. This type of societies began to dominate Western Europe toward the end of the eighteenth century, reflecting a strategy to expand export production in order to appropriate embodied labor and resources from elsewhere in the world-system. Perceived as progress and ‘development,’ this transition has shaped hegemonic worldviews and visions of a desirable future for all humankind, but current concerns with inequalities, resource depletion, and climate change suggest that such aspirations are not globally sustainable. Industrialization and urbanization tend to fundamentally transform sociocultural conditions and human–environmental relations. Anthropological perspectives can illuminate how the cultural inclinations and self-representations of industrial societies are geared to global political economy, sociology, and ecology.

Department/s

  • Human Ecology

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

863-867

Publication/Series

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Volume

11

Document type

Article in encyclopedia

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Social and Economic Geography

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-0-08-043076-8