Industrial Culture and the Industrial Revolution

This chapter investigates the reciprocal relationship between industrial culture and industrial revolutions. It first analyzes the profound cultural shifts during historical revolutions: career transformation (to industrial laborers), organizational change (to modern corporations), rise of bureaucratic management, urbanization-driven lifestyle adjustments, and evolution of cultural consumption. The chapter then explores how industrial culture, particularly norms of innovation and collaboration, facilitates the Fourth Industrial Revolution by integrating digital technologies like AI into manufacturing. The findings confirm that industrial culture provides the essential ideological foundation for industrial revolutions (e.g., scientific rationality for the First Industrial Revolution), while the revolutions, in turn, drive the enrichment and upgrading of industrial culture (e.g., digital transformation reshaping corporate norms). The chapter underscores that technological innovation, coupled with a supportive cultural environment, is critical for triggering industrial revolutions and necessitates cultural reconstruction.