Types of industry

• There are four main types of industry: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary.
• The type of industry a country specialises in changes over time.
• There are social, environmental and economic impacts of industry.

Industry is any economic activity which creates jobs and generates income.

There are four main types of industry:

• Primary sector
• Secondary sector
• Tertiary sector
• Quaternary sector

Primary industry involves the production or extraction of raw materials and includes forestry, farming, fishing and mining.

Secondary industry is the manufacturing of goods. For example, the north west of England used to have a thriving textile industry making cloth from cotton, China has a thriving manufacturing sector producing electronics, and Germany is one of the largest manufacturer of cars.

Tertiary industry involves providing services to people, for example a cleaner or a doctor.

Quaternary industry is the newest sector and focuses on knowledge-based industries or high-tech industries such as ICT (information and communication technologies) and research and development.

What industry or industries a country focuses on changes over time and can be shown using the Clark Fisher model.

The model is split into three phases:

1. The pre-industrial phase – a country is mostly focused on the primary sector and the main activity is likely to be agriculture.
2. The industrial phase – secondary and tertiary sectors increase in importance. Primary sector activities start to decline. For example, in cities such as Manchester and later Liège in Belgium during the Industrial Revolution.
3. The post-industrial phase – manufacturing starts to decline as the tertiary sector becomes the most important sector and quaternary industries start to develop. Only a very small percentage of the overall population will now be involved in primary industries.

Different countries around the world are at different stages of industrial development and there are regional variations within countries. Countries rely on each other for the manufacture and sale of goods to take place. For example, raw materials may be bought in one country, used to manufacture goods in another, and then sold in a third country. This can have positive benefits as it improves co-operation between countries through international trade but can also be a source of conflict.

As countries develop, they move through the phases of the Clark Fisher model. When a country no longer mainly manufactures goods and moves into the service sector, this is known as de-industrialisation.

The transition of phases (Clark Fisher model) can happen for a number of reasons but one of the most significant is the off-shoring of manufacturing from a high-income country (HIC) to a low-income country (LIC) or a newly emerging economy (NEE). An example of this is the relocation of aeroplane engine production from Barnoldswick in Lancashire, in the UK, to Singapore. This is done for a number of reasons:

• To increase profits by exploiting the lower cost of labour by paying lower wages.
• To take advantage of less rigorous rules for example fewer environmental or health and safety laws.

When primary and secondary industries, and their workers, are abandoned in favour of new industries this can lead to conflict within a country.

This happened in the United Kingdom in the 1980s as the government decided to move from the secondary sector to a new phase of post-industrialism, where the tertiary and quaternary sectors were encouraged.

The decline in primary and secondary industries in many places has led to unemployment and many other social issues.

The countries who benefit from a decline elsewhere in primary and secondary industries are the newly emerging economies (NEEs). Nigeria, for example, as it moves into the industrial phase of their development and begins to develop tertiary industries, can use the money generated to improve schools, hospitals and infrastructure in the country and provide jobs for the workforce.

There may also be negatives for these countries as industry can be polluting.

For example, leather manufacturing is one of the largest causes of pollution in the River Ganges in India. This includes waste water from factories being released into rivers and lakes along with chemicals.

Increasingly there are calls for a new ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ in manufacturing with a move away from polluting industries such as energy production using fossil fuels towards the development of green, environmentally friendly, technology such as wind turbines.

In 2020 the UK government announced a ten point plan for a green industrial revolution to support green jobs and move towards a zero carbon economy.

Low-income countries (LICs) tend to still rely on the export of raw materials, such as cocoa beans, to more developed countries to be converted into manufactured goods, such as chocolate. This can lead to exploitation of the poorer countries by those who are richer and reinforces the dominance of already powerful nations.