One of the main agents of production and transformation of geographic space in today's society, without a doubt, is industrial activity, as it has effects on population movements and the growth of cities; it interferes in the types of production in urban areas and also in rural areas, among others.
it is understood by industrialization the process of transforming raw materials into goods or production goods (the latter being able to be transformed again) through work, the use of equipment and the investment of capital. Obviously, the growth of industrial activity has increased the demand for raw materials and more natural resources. human being began to explore nature even more and, on it and the space in general, carry out more and more interventions and impacts.
In the view of many authors in the field of Human Sciences, the industrialization process is synonymous with the era of modernity, that is, the industrialization of societies thus marks their insertion into the modern world.
Evolution of industrial activity - brief history
Over time, pre-industrial and industrial societies have gone through successive stages of transformation, which generated direct consequences on the types of production of goods and the form of insertion of these in the Marketplace.
Pre-industrial phase (handcraft): the phase of artisanal activity – that is, when this practice was the predominant mode of production – extended from Antiquity to the 17th century. The production was individual and centered on the figure of the artisan, who acted from the beginning of the production process to, at times, the commercialization of their products.
Manufacturing phase: the first industries were based on manufacturing, that is, manual work. This phase lasted from the 17th century until the middle of the 18th century, when the process of Industrial Revolution. Manual work and simple machines were used with the inauguration of the process of division of tasks and the formation of the working classes (the salaried) and the employers (the bosses).
Machinery or industrial phase: we can say that the industrial phase itself occurred after the beginning of the I Industrial Revolution with the invention of machinery capable of intensifying production and employing a greater number of workers, in addition to producing new and varied types of goods. Over time, this activity was perfected with the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions.
Post-industrial phase: although there is no consensus on this term, the post-industrial phase would be one in which industries, although still very important, fail to play a central role at the heart of societies in one stage. recent. The main characteristic, in this case, is the displacement of employment to the tertiary sector (commerce and services), in a phenomenon that economists call tertiarization of the economy.
It is worth noting that the steps mentioned above did not follow one another in a linear fashion in all societies, nor in an equal manner. Some countries or regions of the world only knew the industrialization process in its most advanced or modern phase; other regions, in some underdeveloped countries, cannot even be considered as industrial societies.
Types of industries
We can say that there are three main types of industries, classified based on the typology of their goods, with, however, numerous other forms of division of industrial activity. Based on this criterion, the types of industries are: basic, durable consumer goods and non-durable consumer goods.
Basic industries: are those types of industries that manufacture the so-called production goods, that is, those products that are not consumed by people but used by other industries to manufacture goods. They can be industrial machines or processed raw materials, such as aluminum, iron, among others. This includes, therefore, the so-called "extractive industries", that is, those that act in the process of refinement or transformation of newly extracted raw materials such as oil and all minerals.
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Durable Goods Industries: are the industries that operate in the manufacture of non-perishable products, that is, those that have a long useful life, such as automobiles, electronics, among others.
Nondurable Goods Industries: are those that produce perishable goods, that is, that are quickly consumed, such as food, clothing and others.
location factors
Locational factors refer to the socioeconomic elements that guide the distribution of a given industry over geographic space. Among the numerous factors, we can highlight:
- Immediate presence of raw materials and natural resources;
- Availability of abundant and cheap labor;
- Tax incentives offered by the local government (tax exemption, etc.);
- Practical and efficient transport network that allows for easy production flow;
- Broad and accessible consumer market;
- Energy sources that guarantee production;
- Presence of complementary or support industries;
- In some types of industry, proximity to research centers such as universities is important.
All of these elements (or at least most of them) are evaluated by an industry when it chooses the location for its installation. Many municipal, state and even federal governments act to guarantee these conditions (especially tax incentives) so that the factories are installed in their territories and, thus, generate more direct and indirect jobs, making the economy more dynamic.
In some places, industrial complexes with large infrastructure are formed
In this context, it is worth emphasizing the growing importance of multinational or global companies, who often move from one area to another in order to obtain such benefits. Many of them migrate to underdeveloped countries, where labor is cheaper, that is, with less wages for workers. In addition, many of them fragment production in many regions, such as the automobile industries, where the various parts of a car are produced in different parts of the world to obtain greater advantages and maximum generation of profit.
The effects of industrialization on geographic space
As we have already mentioned, industry is one of the main agents of space transformation. When a previously non-industrialized area receives a relative number of factories, the tendency is to receive more migrants to its area, accelerating its urbanization.
With more people living in the same place, there is more demand for commercial activity and also in the service sector, which expands and produces more jobs. Among other positive aspects, mention should be made of the greater collection through taxes (although, almost always, large companies do not contribute so much to this aspect).
Industries contribute to job creation
Among the negative effects of industrialization, we can mention the impacts generated on the environment, given that, depending on the type of factory and the infrastructure offered to it, more pollutants are generated in the atmosphere and also in the soils and courses of water. In addition, tax incentives offered by the government are criticized for making the population pay more on taxes than large companies.
The power of intervention of industry in societies is so high that even their production modalities, that is, the predominant way in which its production lines operate interfere in the organization of space, generating more or less products and jobs, among other elements. In the Fordist era, production was mass production, with more jobs situated in the secondary sector; which was radically transformed into the era of Toyotism.
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
