  We present a new approach to analyze homogeneous nucleation based on
non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The starting point is the formulation of a
Gibbs equation for the variations of the entropy of the system, whose state is
characterized by an internal coordinate or degree of freedom. By applying the
method of non-equilibrium thermodynamics we then obtain the entropy production
corresponding to a diffusion process in the internal space. The linear laws
together with the continuity equation lead to a kinetic equation of the
Fokker-Planck type. By choosing properly the degree of freedom we are able to
obtain a new kinetic equation for a global crystallization order parameter
(used in recent simulations), and also we recover some of the existing
equations. The consistency of the scheme we propose is proved in the
quasi-stationary case. Finally, we also outline the way in which our formalism
could be extended to more general situations.
