Pre-industrial city is a city, which is not emerged as a result of industrialization but has other factors contributing to its formation. Pre-industrial cities are the cities that have emerged as a market places, but not associated with European industrial revolution. Benaras city can be stated as an example for this type of city. Industrial cities on the other hand are emerged from the industrialization. Jamshedpur city is one of this kind. These both type of cities are not divided on the basis of time aspect and may exist simultaneously at the same time.
The foremost difference between pre-industrial city and industrial city is the industrialism. There is an absence of industrialism in Pre-industrial cities, which means these cities completely depend on animate sources of energy such as humans, animals and some tools such as wheels, hammers etc for producing goods. Industrialism does exist in Industrial cities. They depend on inanimate sources of energy such as machines and electricity for the manufacture of goods. In industrial cities, hand labour is replaced by machines and these machines are further replaced by even more advanced machines to increase efficiency and productivity.
Pre-industrial cities lack modern transportation facilities and are very congested in nature. They may also face sanitation problems. Whereas industrial cities are planned cities equipped with modern transportation facilities. It is totally man made urban environment and is considered as unnatural. There exists a regulating authority in industrial cities to regulate the dealings between buyers and sellers and also to establish markets. In pre-industrial cities, literate elite controls the masses, who produce handicrafts.
Rigid class structure is one of the characteristics of Pre-industrial cities. There are a sharp divisions between Elites and masses. There is no middle class. Outcastes, which are considered as less than the lower castes, serves others. In industrial cities, anonymity prevails. Middle class people are the majority. Communities are replaced by networks. In pre-industrial cities, large family networks dominate the nuclear families. Children are considered as subordinates to parents. There are certain family functions assigned to all members of family. In industrial cities, joint families are replaced by nuclear families. Some family functions tends to lost relevance. play schools, day care centers and oldage homes were started to take up the tasks. Social mobility in pre-industrial cities is minimal. There is no threat to the position of upper classes. In industrial cities, social mobility and occupational mobility is more because of availability of vast opportunities.
In pre-industrial cities, handicraftsmen involves in every phase of the manufacture of the good. They even market their own goods. Whereas in industrial cities, each phase of production is carried out by specialists. Specialization of work is the important characteristic of these cities. In pre-industrial cities, money isn’t the sole criteria of the markets. People sell the products in a leisurely manner. There is no fixed price and standardization for products. On the other hand, in industrial cities, work is clock-regulated. People work for fixed number of hours and every activity is carried down in a professional way.
Afterwords :- Write your own answer for this question in the comment section below. We will give you feedback. Feel free to let us know any points to add/remove to improvise the answer.
