Industrial-Colonial Paradigm

Written By Yuen Yuen Ang

Term

Industrial-Colonial Paradigm

Idea level

Paradigm

Definition

The Industrial–Colonial Paradigm, coined by Yuen Yuen Ang in 2024, describes the dominant worldview that emerged in the 18th-century alongside industrialization and colonial expansion and continues to shape political economy today. It combines mechanical thinking (treating societies as controllable machines) with a colonial logic of assimilation (treating an idealized West as a universal benchmark), underpinning conventional approaches to governance and development that privilege control, linear causality, and Western-centric benchmarks over adaptation, coevolution, and diverse indigenous innovation.

Sources

First articulation:

Policy report:

Genealogy

[Paradigm] Industrial–Colonial Paradigm: dominant worldview of political economy from 18th-20th centuries, grounded in mechanical thinking and colonial logic

→ [Application: Development] Mechanical thinking: emphasis on single interventions and RCTs over macro drivers of social transformation

→ [Application: Development] Colonial logic: one-size-fits-all “good governance” reforms that fail to localize, adapt, or respond to contingency

→ [Iteration] Crisis of the industrial–colonial paradigm in the 21st century, often labeled “polycrisis”

→ [Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral) Political Economy — alternative paradigm for a disrupted, multipolar world

Quotes

“Our reality is rapidly changing, but the industrial-colonial paradigm—the mental operating system we use—is still stuck in the last century, shaped by the global institutions and norms of that era.”

“Disruption triggers deep anxieties because it exposes the failures of these two outdated logics [mechanical and colonial thinking].

“We need to challenge the ingrained habit of seeing development only as a ‘poor country problem,’ because the real challenges cut across all categories… The global majority is increasingly uninterested in joining a value system where they are judged by their distance from the liberal West—which they see are in trouble today.”

— Ang, Keynote at UNDP, 2024 (transcript)

“The reason conversations about the polycrisis always seem to hit a dead end is straightforward: they fail to recognize the industrial-colonial paradigm that has led to our crises in the first place.”

“We are heirs to the Age of Domination, characterized both by industrialization (human domination over nature) and by colonialism (Western domination over everyone else). The polycrisis instils fear in global elites because it exposes the limits of both forces, and the mental models that lay behind them. Industrialization promoted a mechanical worldview… The adaptive, multi-causal qualities inherent to complex systems (like forests) are regarded as annoying complications to be purged… The colonial worldview accompanies the mechanical mindset. Although formal colonies no longer exist, global institutions emerged in an era when they did… The animating assumption was that Western capitalist democracies exemplify the end point of human evolution, and the rest of the world only needs to ‘catch up’ and assimilate.”

— Ang, Doing Development in the Polycrisis (2024)

“Polytunity begins with a simple insight: we cannot tackle 21st-century challenges with 20th-century mental models. Yet much of political-economic thinking still relies on what I call the industrial—colonial paradigm, a mindset inherited from the 18th to 20th centuries… When the industrial-colonial paradigm is translated into practice, it tends to produce distorting and disempowering results.”

“This essay introduces AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral) Political Economy as a paradigm designed for a disrupted, multipolar world. AIM replaces the industrial-colonial worldview that has long shaped political economy, challenging its mechanical assumptions, Eurocentric benchmarks, and claims of neutrality.”

— Ang, AIM: Introduction and Applications (2026)

Concept Constellation

Across Ang’s work, the Industrial–Colonial Paradigm consistently co-occurs with the following concepts and analytic themes:

  • Polycrisis (culmination of industrial-Western-centric systems and thinking)

  • Polytunity (disruption = renewal)

  • Mechanical Thinking (societies as machines; control over adaptation)

  • Colonial logic of assimilation (idealized West as universal end-points)

  • In contrast to: AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral) Political Economy

Related Descriptive Phrases (Non-Canonical)

These phrases are commonly used to describe aspects of “Industrial-Colonial” when the keyword is not used.

  • Colonial industralization / colonial-industrial / Industrialization and imperialism

  • Global coloniality / colonial capitalism

 

Yuen Yuen Ang https://www.yuenyuenang.org
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Polycrisis
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World Order After 2025