Impact Of Industrialization And Urbanization On People's Psychology And Behaviour

Handout 2 analysis

Amin Zouch, Third Year student

This text taken from the Medico-legal Journal "sex in the permissive society" which was written by Fr.Paul J. Duffy, S.J and published on October 4, 1969 is about the important role played by industrialization in Britain since the Mid-twentieth century. Beginning from the nineteenth century, industrialization played a significant role in building Britain's economic power and bringing rapid growth to cities and factories. As a consequence, the citizens' standard of living began to improve rapidly giving way to an unexpected urban and population growth together with an efficient manufacturing system that transformed Britain into a mass consumer society. In addition to boosting social mass consumption that is deemed considerable in sustaining industrialization improvement, the text under examination sheds light on the impact of industrialization on urbanization, and the effect of industrialization on both individual identity and behaviour. One of the industrialization's most prominent concerns is to guarantee an ever-growing social mass consumption through instilling a certain number of needs in the consumer who would consequently feels the necessity of buying any given product. Indeed, this is achieved through a large scale advertising industry which aims at keeping "the consumer's endless needs" a permanent sustainer for industrialization growth. As industrialization dates back to the nineteenth century, it is obvious to say that it embodies the British economic backbone. However, advertising industry does not seem to be the only reason for sustaining industrialization growth and mass consumption. Other reasons include the initiation of the welfare system, which was one of the preoccupations of the Attlee government that served to redistribute wealth and reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. Also, Mass consumption was further reinforced in the Governments of Eden and Macmillan when their tendency for privatization and free market had the greatest role in improving the aspects of affluence, hence to significantly improve the citizens' standard of living and mass consumption. Apart from the prodigious advertising industry, since the industrial society depends on people who should leave nearby the industrial complexes, urbanization is essential for industrialization growth. In fact, people are those who can be either the product consumers of these industries or the workers who make these products. Accordingly, the abundant economic opportunities that these industrial complexes offer are the real reasons behind settling in urban areas. Because of the interdependency between industrialization and urbanization, it seems almost inevitable for the urban dweller to experience a traumatic change at the level of his identity and behaviour. Indeed, urbanization prompts in the dweller a persistent feeling of vulnerability towards a sophisticated system of life and work. Accordingly, to maintain a job, a personal status, or personal worth, one should comply with a set of rules and regulations put in the service of competition. However, making up for the social vulnerability comes at the expense of one's sense of belonging to be replaced with a sense of rootlessness and crisis of identity. In its turn, the crisis of identity enhances, along with affluence, an increasing geographical and social mobility. As anonymity could be the outcome of the adherence to the conformity and identification with the system of competitiveness supported by the concept of industrialization, many values and norms related to the social psychology are likely to be shaken from the foundation. Indeed, a set of consistent values and traditions ingrained in the people's mentality would be in threat of disappearance to leave them with the feeling of alienation that kills every sense of belonging. To sum up, as industrialization represents the key factor for boosting up the process of urbanization, social mass consumption grew important thanks to a tremendous advertising industry that takes hold of the consumer's needs. On the contrary, the outcome of industrialization together with urbanization had a great impact on the dweller who suffers from alienation and anonymity, two characteristics predetermined by the rules of competition.