Capitalist Society In The 18th Century

Capitalist society is defined as “an economic system in which resources and the means of producing goods and services are privately owned.” (p449)

During the past several years our economy has continuously changed, from the agricultural revolution to the post-industrial society. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the development of industrialization brought about five notable changes to the economies of Western societies. (p449) These included new forms of energy, the centralisation of work in factories, manufacturing and mass production, Wage Labour and most importantly Division of labour and specialization. Firstly, the new forms of energy meant that people no longer had to use their muscles or animals to power most machinery as James Watt pioneered the development of the steam engine in 1763 . Secondly the centralisation of work in factories, which meant that the work place became a public sphere and separate from the home. The development of the industrial revolution also turned most traditional …show more content…
Mechanical solidarity represented traditional societies based on shared beliefs where everyone was similar to each other and the division of labour was limited. Organic solidarity represented a modern society where specialization and interdependence occurred due to integration which created a more complex division of labour . However Durkheim argued that the transformation was not causing a loss of community but shared beliefs to a community based on specialisation and interdependence. In mechanical societies varies social roles and specialisation lead to people relying on one another as they only specialised in on aspect of the process and the next part was completed by the second person down the production line. For example in traditional societies farmers were self sufficient where as in modern societies workers rely on other people in order for them to complete one