ABSTRACT
Ever larger segments of the world’s population are living and will come to live in what is commonly called “industrial society.” Only one institutional complex is considered, namely, that which characterizes the modern, large-scale, bureaucratic industrial system. The pressure generated by the institutional setting of industrialism may affect only a narrow range of experience and attitude–possibly only that relating to work experience. Probably very few will argue that any people can indefinitely, or even for very long, utilize the material and institutional forms of industrial society without also absorbing some of its culture. The typical response of any population may be strongly shaped by its traditional culture, and that of any particular group in some country may be influenced by a unique local situation. The choice of industrial society as a field of investigation is therefore not based solely on grounds of methodological expediency or political interest.
