Creating large scale machine and electronics technology based production in an economy. Industrialization results in the predominance of manufactured goods determining the economy. The process can begin with light industry, like textiles, and as this expands then transfering capital toward heavy or high technology industry. Some nations, such as the former USSR, have begun with heavy industry; others, like Japan, with simultaneous development of heavy and light industry. The availability of resources, technology, labour, capital, skilled workers and managerial capacity determine the rate and type of industrialization. The purpose and social situation of industrialization can allow provide constraints on it.
The industrialization process began with the industrial revolution in the UK, spreading to continental Europe and North America. However the pattern of industrial activity has undergone important shifts in recent decades. Heavy industry is expanding rapidly in the developing Asian and South American economies, while expansion of the industrial base in Europe, the United States and Japan is directed more to high technology production processes and service-oriented activities.
Many people believe that new industrial revolutions are already taking place, with the rise of cybertechnology, biotechnology and nanotechnology. It is true that these are powerful tools for change. But they are only tools - hyperefficient engines for the steamship of the first Industrial Revolution. But there is an alternative -- one that will allow both business and nature to be fecund and productive. This alternative is what we call "eco-effectiveness." Our concept of eco-effectiveness leads to human industry that is regenerative rather than depletive. It involves the design of things that celebrate interdependence with other living systems. From an industrial-design perspective, it means products that work within cradle-to-cradle life cycles rather than cradle-to-grave ones. (William McDonough and Michael Braungart).