Post-industrial society

The term Post-industrial society was coined by the French sociologist Alain Touraine and developed theoretically by the American sociologist Daniel Bell.

Background

Touraine fluctuates in his 1969 book, a revised collection of essays, nor between the attributes of post-industrial, technocratic and programmed society.

" Before our eyes caused companies of a new type. And they will call post-industrial societies, if you want to identify the distance that separate them from the industrial societies that preceded them [ ... ]. And they shall call technocratic societies, if you want to give them the name of power, it dominates. And they will call programmed companies when trying to define them first by the nature of its production and its economic organization. "

Bell points out in his 1973 published fundamental work " The Coming of Post Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting " ( German title: " The post-industrial society "), especially the importance of change in the social structure of society. In order to observe a variety of different components of social change, he analyzes so-called axial structures, so the question of the central principle, " according to the central axis around which revolves the Company" to be clarified.

" The concept of post-industrial society 'emphasizes the centrality of theoretical knowledge as the axis to organize the new technologies, economic growth and the stratification of society."

Features

For Bell two main features characterize the post-industrial society: " [ ... ] the centrality of theoretical knowledge and the increasing predominance of the services sector of the manufacturing industry " (Daniel Bell). The centrality of theoretical knowledge is for Bell then existent, when an increasing function of the science exists as a means of innovation and as an organizing principle of technological change. Services of post-industrial society, he also characterizes as human and academic primarily services. While in capitalist society the axial institution was private property, so Bell, this will be the theoretical knowledge in the post-industrial society.

Information Society

Bell uses for the post-industrial society is also the concept of information society. " Was the industrial society, a goods-producing, as is the post-industrial society, information society " in which the production of information is more dependent than from raw materials.

However, Bell refers to the post-industrial society, not only as information but also as a knowledge society, since in his view, on the one hand innovations are increasingly supported by research and development, and society on the other hand more and more weight on the area of knowledge. As evidence, he leads among other things to the increasing proportion of workers in this field. Due to the importance that has knowledge in his concept of the term, it is often classified as a representative of the knowledge society.

Bell defines the notion of knowledge from a science- centered perspective: "Knowledge means to me: new judgments ( from research and science ) or new presentation of older views ( in textbooks or in the classroom ) ." Bells society is, above all, a akademisierte and verwissenschaftlichte society, knowledge is considered as a science knowledge.

Division into classes

After Bell establish themselves in the post-industrial society, the following three classes:

Promotion to higher classes is possible through academic education.