Industiarlization Before Industiarlization

Beginning in the late Middle Ages, and accelerating in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there developed in many rural regions of Europe a domestic industry, mass-producing craft goods for distant markets. This book presents an analysis of this 'industrialization before industrialization', and considers the question whether it constituted a distinct mode of production, different from the preceding feudal economy and from subsequent industrial capitalism, or was part of a process of continuous evolution characterized by the spread of wage labour and the penetration of capitalism into the process of production. It is a full-scale attempt to take a look at the place of proto-industrialization in the genesis of capitalism, and will interest economic and social historians, as well as anthropologists, sociologists, and others concerned with the development of capitalism.

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Industrial Revolution is central to the teaching of economic history. It has also been key to historical research on the commercial expansion of Western Europe, the rise of factories, coal and iron production, the proletarianization of labour, and the birth and worldwide spread of industrial capitalism. However, perspectives on the Industrial Revolution have changed significantly in recent years. The interdisciplinary approach of Reinventing the Economic History of Industrialisation - with contributions on the history of consumption, material culture, and cultural histories of science and technology - offers a more global perspective, arguing for an interpretation of the industrial revolution based on global interactions that made technological innovation and the spread of knowledge possible. Through this new lens, it becomes clear that industrialising processes started earlier and lasted longer than previously understood. Reflecting on the major topics of concern for economic historians over the past generation, Reinventing the Economic History of Industrialisation brings this area of study up to date and points the way forward.

Urban re-industrialisation could be seen as a method of increasing business effectiveness in the context of a politically stimulated 'green economy'; it could also be seen as a nostalgic mutation of a creative-class concept, focused on 3D printing, 'boutique manufacturing' and crafts. These two notions place urban re-industrialisation within the context of the current neoliberal economic regime and urban development based on property and land speculation. Could urban re-industrialisation be a more radical idea? Could urban re-industrialization be imagined as a progressive socio-political and economic project, aimed at creating an inclusive and democratic society based on cooperation and a symbiosis that goes way beyond the current model of a neoliberal city?In January 2012, against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis, Krzysztof Nawratek published a text in opposition to the fantasy of a 'cappuccino city, ' arguing that the post-industrial city is a fiction, and that it should be replaced by 'Industrial City 2.0.' Industrial City 2.0 is an attempt to see a post-socialist and post-industrial city from another perspective, a kind of negative of the modernist industrial city. If, for logistical reasons and because of a concern for the health of residents, modernism tried to separate different functions from each other (mainly industry from residential areas), Industrial City 2.0 is based on the ideas of coexistence, proximity, and synergy. The essays collected here envision the possibilities (as well as the possible perils) of such a scheme.TABLE OF CONTENTS //Introduction: Urban Re-industrialization as a Political Project (Krzysztof Nawratek)PART 1: Why Should We Do It? / Re-industrialisation as Progressive Urbanism: Why and How? (Michael Edwards & Myfanwy Taylor) - Mechanisms of Loss (Karol Kurnicki) - The Cultural Politics of Re-industrialisation: Some Remarks on Cultural and Urban Policy in the European Union (Jonathan Vickery)PART 2: Political Considerations and Implications / 'Shrimps not whales': Building a City of Small Parts as an Alternative Vision for Post-industrial Society (Alison Hulme) - 'Der Arbeiter': (Re) Industrialisation as Universalism? (Krzysztof Nawratek) - Whose Re-industrialisation? Greening the Pit or Taking Over the Means of Production? (Malcolm Miles) - Crowdsourced Urbanism? The Maker Revolution and the Creative City 2.0. (Doreen Jakob) - Brave New World? (Tatjana Schneider) - The Political Agency of Geography and the Shrinking City (Jeffrey T. Kruth)PART 3: How Should We Do It? / Beyond the Post-Industrial City? The Third Industrial Revolution, Digital Manufacturing and the Transformation of Homes into Miniature Factories (John R. Bryson, Jennifer Clark, & Rachel Mulhall) - Conspicuous Production: Valuing the Visibility of Industry in Urban Re-industrialisation Strategies (Karl Baker) - Industri[us] (Christina Norton) - Working with the Neighbours: Co-operative Practices Delivering Sustainable Benefits (Kate Royston) - Low-carbon (Re-)industrialisation: Lessons from China (Kevin Lo & Mark Yaolin Wang

This collection of essays provides an up-to-date introduction to 'proto-industrialization': the growth of export-oriented domestic industries which took place all over Europe between about 1500 and 1800. Often these industries expanded alongside agriculture, without advanced technology or centralized factories. Since the 1970s, numerous theories have been proposed, arguing that proto-industrialization transformed demographic behaviour, social structure and traditional institutions, and was a major cause of capitalism and factory industrialization. European proto-industrialization summarizes the theories and criticisms, and includes a reconsideration of the original theories, and chapters written by experts on different European countries. It provides an essential guide to an important, yet often confusing, field of economic and social history.