We now have
greater leisure time, but also the things we produce during our work life
are no longer our 'own,' in contrast to an agrarian societies where people
own the food they produce on their lands, and make only the clothing and
things they need to survive. We receive wages for the goods and services we
provide to strangers. Instead, what we do at work is often very different
than how we pursue in our private lives-one reason that the Industrial
Revolution is often said to have created private life.
Discussion 2
The rise of cities during the Industrial Revolution, describe how
technology actually contributed to the growth of cities during this time
period, a new concept in comparison to the common living on farms.
Technology enabled large factories to quickly produce goods, and
fueled the demand for a high volume of workers. Workers flocked to cities
for employment, especially because farming was less and less profitable.
Technology could accomplish in minutes what took days to accomplish by
hand. However, rather than working for their own enrichment, or the
enrichment...
But urban societies also produced a new,
industrial culture. For example, the cities of the major nations of the
world, like New York, Paris, and London, are often said to have their own
unique characters, because of their ethnic diversity, as distinct from the
national culture. Also, people in cities often live differently and perhaps
more similarly to other international urban dwellers than rural dwellers in
the same nation-people in cities live in small quarters, often do not
bother to use a car, socialize outside rather than inside of the home, live
streets away from the major financial, fashion, and artistic hubs of the
world, and thus are more 'cosmopolitan' in their collective culture as a
result.
