As we have previously noted, an important feature of modern societies is the way the process of industrialisation starts to take shape alongside the development of Capitalism. Industrial societies, in basic terms, involve the application of machine technology ("mechanisation") to the process of producing things ("commodities").

Thus, the mechanisation process involves people using and working alongside machinery in a way that makes them highly-productive. In the early-industrial period in Britain, for example, the introduction of machines into agriculture had the twin effect of increasing food production and significantly lowering the number of people needed to produce food.

Industrialisation brings with it the prospect of mass production (consumer goods can be made cheaply, quickly, efficiently and to a consistent standard) and, of course, the development of factory-type production processes. In turn, the relationship between industrialisation and Capitalist economic processes produces status-based work hierarchies. In simple terms, this results from the production process being broken-up (or rationalised, to use Max Weber's argument) into various constituent parts (worker, supervisor, manager and so forth).