D. Bell divided world history into three stages: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. When one stage replaces another, the technology, mode of production, form of ownership, social institutions, political regime, culture, way of life, population, social structure of society change.

The term "post-industrial society" was introduced into scientific circulation in the middle of the 20th century. A. Toffler and D. Bell. However, the idea of ​​a post-industrial society was formulated as early as the beginning of the 20th century. A. Penty and was introduced into scientific circulation after the Second World War by D. Riesman, but received wide recognition only in the early 70s. thanks to the fundamental work of R. Aron and D. Bell.

In a pre-industrial society, which is also called traditional, agriculture was the determining factor in development, with the church and the army as the main institutions. In an industrial society - industry, with a corporation and a firm at the head.

Pre-industrial societies are otherwise called traditional because here the main lever of social progress was the transfer of knowledge from the elderly to the youth, strict adherence to once established customs and traditions. Science did not actively interfere in social production, but religion led all social phenomena, be it archaic beliefs (fetishism, magic, etc.) or modern Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.

The word "pre-industrial" refers to all societies where there was no industry yet, i.e. machine production. They could be called pre-industrial or pre-capitalist, the essence of the matter would not change from this. Industry in the modern sense originated not so long ago - 200-250 years ago. Although the industrial revolution, of course, in its early phase, began about 300 years ago.

Therefore, the entire previous period of history is covered by pre-industrial, or traditional, society. It should include all simple (pre-literate) societies, a significant part of written (complex) societies that existed in the era of slavery and feudalism (according to the classification of K. Marx). Of course, one cannot go very far into history - from below we are propped up by a special bar, beyond which is the period of the primitive herd (the herd of prehumans and the herd of people). If we consider the beginning of human society from 35-40 thousand years ago, then this entire segment will be occupied by traditional society. We will have to divide the last thousand years into two disproportionate segments: 1) 300 years for an industrial society, and 2) 30 years for a post-industrial society.

But the post-industrial society does not cover all the countries that exist on the planet, but only the most advanced ones, for example, the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Korea, Great Britain. Most countries, including Russia, have yet to join them. How soon this happens will depend on the pace of economic transformations in our country, the speed of scientific and technological progress.

From an economic point of view, a society is considered industrial, where the vast majority of people (% of the employed population) work in industry (industry). In a post-industrial society, the majority of the employed population does not work in industry, but in the service and information sector. In a pre-industrial society, the majority of the employed population works in the agricultural sector ( agriculture); 3 / 4 of the employed population here are employers, self-employed or engaged in family work. In pre-industrial society, the basis of the production system was not industry, but a system of manual craft based on family labor. It is characteristic of medieval Europe.

So, world history is divided into three major stages: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. When one stage replaces another, the technology, mode of production, form of ownership, social institutions, political regime, culture, way of life, population, social structure of society change.

The transition from an industrial to a post-industrial society is accompanied by the transformation of a commodity-producing economy into a service economy, which means the superiority of the service sector over the production sector. The social structure is changing: class division is giving way to a professional one. Property as a criterion of social inequality is losing its significance, and the level of education and knowledge becomes decisive. Similar processes are observed in the USA and Japan, which are completing the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial society. But they are not being celebrated in Russia, which recently completed the transition from a pre-industrial society, where the majority of the population was peasants living in rural areas, to an industrial one.

The pre-industrial type dominates in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. It is characterized by the predominant importance of agriculture, fishing, cattle breeding, mining and woodworking industries. About 2/3 of the able-bodied population is employed in these areas of economic activity. The main determining principle of life in such societies is the competition of man with nature.

The industrial type of society covers states that are common in North America, Europe, in the territory former USSR. The main thing here is the development of the production of consumer goods, which is carried out at the expense of wide application various kinds of technology. The main thing in such production is the competition of man with the transformed nature.

The post-industrial type has achieved the greatest success in the USA, Canada, Japan and Western Europe. The main thing here is the work aimed at obtaining, processing, storing, transforming and using information. This society is dominated by competition between people.

In the 1960s The prominent American economist G. Kahn, having taken the level of per capita income as a criterion for classifying societies, divided the countries of the world into five groups: 1) pre-industrial, with an average per capita income of $50 to $200; 2) partly industrial, with an income of 200 to 600 dollars; 3) industrial, with income from 600 to 1500 dollars; 4) mass consumer societies, or developed industrial ones, with an income of 1.5 to 4 thousand dollars; finally, 5) post-industrial, with an income exceeding 4 thousand dollars.

In the early 1970s another typology of societies appeared. American sociologists G. Kahn and D. Bell proposed the term "post-economic society", with the help of which they denoted the historical state that replaces modern civilization and describes a larger social phenomenon than the term "industrial society". In domestic science, its supporter is V.L. Inozemtsev, who conducted a theoretical and methodological substantiation of this concept and developed further the ideas of G. Kahn and D. Bell. In his opinion, the formation of such a society should be regarded not as a change in the existing social structure, but as the emergence of a new society that replaces the economic system.

In the pre-economic era there was no market, private property and exploitation of wage labor. In the economic era, market exchange, private property and exploitation have become the main factors in the development of society. In a post-economic society, they should gradually die out. The transition from an economic society to a post-economic one will be very long and associated with a change in the foundations of the market economy.

In the early 60s. F. Machlup and T. Umesao introduced the term " Information society”, which laid the foundation for the theory developed by such authors as M. Porat, I. Masuda, T. Stoner, R. Katz and others. The progress of mankind is viewed here through the prism of an unprecedented expansion of knowledge. Its predecessors include Z. Brzezinski, who developed the concept of a technotronic (from the Greek teche) society, which also emphasizes the dominant role of knowledge in modern society.

Domestic sociology uses all typologies in their original or modified form. Sometimes there are attempts to combine them into some synthetic model. An interesting attempt to combine various typological approaches was proposed by V.F. Anurin, who combined in one theoretical model the formational approach of Marx, the tripartite concept of Morgan and modern evolutionary schemes.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Department of Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology. G.S. Arefieva

Essay on the course "Philosophy of technology"

post-industrial society. Bell's theory

Moscow, 2014

Introduction

Chapter 1. Development of post-industrial society

Chapter 2. Bell's theory and its role in the processes of post-industrial society

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Modern world entered the third millennium. Humanity has approached this important milestone with great achievements and great losses. Today, everyone is interested in the question: what does the future hold for us? How will civilization develop in the 21st century? Predicting the future is always difficult, and therefore researchers give different answers to these questions. The theory of post-industrial civilization received a lot of supporters. According to it, the era of industrial civilization has ended and humanity (or a significant part of it) has entered the next stage of development - post-industrial civilization. What are the trends inherent in the new stage of the civilizational development of mankind?

A major role will be played by scientific and technological progress, the achievement of which should qualitatively change the entire system of production. As a result, it will become more focused on meeting human needs, it will maximize the activation of Creative skills a person who will require thorough knowledge, the ability to independently make decisions and quickly respond to changes in the situation. Huge plants and factories inherent in industrial civilization, which caused a lot of harm to the environment, will disappear. Instead, small enterprises, non-waste technologies, the use of synthetic raw materials instead of natural ones, the creation of new energy sources, and strict observance of environmental standards will become widespread. This will make it possible to overcome numerous environmental issues, which also became one of the consequences of industrialization. There are grounds for asserting the beginning of rapid deurbanization - a decrease in the population of cities. In the industrial era, cities established the role of administrative, industrial and cultural centers. Recently, in developed countries, there has been a growing trend in the number of people who do not want to settle in megacities and prefer living in rural-type estates outside them. Thanks to computers and electronic means of communication, a person here feels separated from the outside world and can not only relax, but also work. It is likely that the post-industrial era will entail many changes in the socio-political sphere. Many researchers are inclined to believe that the state will try to reduce direct intervention in the economy and public life in general, by preventing offenses and maintaining the rule of law. Government should be characterized by decentralization, the desire to make it more democratic, close to human needs. The powers of regional and municipal bodies will increase.

The purpose of the abstract is to analyze Bell's theory on the basis of a study of the socio-economic changes that take place in a post-industrial society, and to identify the format for their consideration and analysis in the new political economy. The abstract consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Chapter 1. Development of post-industrial society

The study of the post-industrial society and the methodological problems of its study are devoted to the works of many domestic and foreign scientists: D. Bell, T. Sakaya, A. Toynbee, E. Toffler, S. Huntington, V. Inozemtsev, Yu. Zaitsev, V. Savchuk, A. Chukhno and others. However, many issues remain unresolved, in particular, the system of rules and procedures for studying the new organization of economic relations in a post-industrial society needs further study, because the new reality requires a new methodology for its study.

In the process of studying the concept of "post-industrial society" it turned out that there are different interpretations of its essence. Some scholars identify it with the "post-industrial economy". On the one hand, a post-industrial society is a theoretical abstraction, a type of socio-economic system that has replaced the industrial society, whether it is a "knowledge economy", widely used by economists of the event, or a new type of economy. In any case, using the term "society of the future", they mean a society where the service sector dominates in the material sphere, information and knowledge become the main factors of economic growth, creativity becomes a universal work activity. On the other hand, by "post-industrial society" one can understand precisely that community with new characteristics that arise on the basis of a post-industrial economy. In this aspect, the "post-industrial society" is also a community of people who have a positive attitude towards creative work and innovation, in an employment structure dominated by the service sector (which is associated with growing labor productivity).

In his work "The Coming Post-Industrial Society", D. Bell gives the following definition: "Post-industrial society is based on services, therefore it is a game between people. The main thing is no longer muscular strength and energy, but information. The main actor becomes a professional, because "his experience and knowledge allow him to meet all the requirements of a post-industrial society. If an industrial society is defined by the number of goods, means the standard of living, then a post-industrial society is determined by the quality of life, measured by services - health care, recreation and culture."

There are two levels of signs of a post-industrial society: public and individual. Signs at the public level are directly based on the economic development of the country, the maturity of the economic and political systems, the features of the post-industrial economy; individual (self-development and evolution of a person's worldview, awareness of himself as a separate creative individuality) are personal characteristics.

The division of the signs of a post-industrial society into two levels is determined by the nature of the changes that occur in this type of society. These are objective changes that concern the entire community of people, and subjective changes that are characteristic of an individual. As the well-known researcher of the problems of post-industrial society V. Inozemtsev emphasizes, the transition to a new society means, first of all, a change in the motivation of the activity of the person himself.

It should be noted that the construction of a post-industrial society is possible only on the basis of a developed economy that ensures expanded social reproduction. As practice shows, the most competitive are those countries that have moved to the stage of post-industrial development and use innovations and products of the scientific and technological revolution (scientific and technological revolution) in their growth. This is confirmed by the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum, because in the top ten leaders of the 2011-2012 ranking. Countries such as Switzerland (5.74 index), Singapore (5.63), Sweden (5.61), Finland (5.47), USA (5.43), Germany (5.41), the Netherlands (5.41), Denmark (5.40), Japan (5.40) ), UK (5.39).

Such a high assessment was formed precisely by their achievements in the field of innovation development. In particular, Switzerland, which took first place in the component "Innovation and Development Factors" (rank 5.79), Sweden - 2nd place (rank 5.79), Finland - 4th place (rank 5.56). The only exception is Singapore, which ranked 11th in this component (rank 5.23), but has significant achievements in other areas.

The economy of a post-industrial society is substantially supported by state social security, care for the disabled and health care of its citizens. The humanization of labor, the creation of comfortable and harmless working conditions, an increase in the amount of free time - all these are indispensable conditions for the post-industrial system.

The deepest features of a post-industrial society are the overcoming of the previous forms of organization of commodity relations, the replacement of private property with personal property and the deployment of processes that contribute to overcoming the exploitation of man by man.

The post-industrial economic system is based on the performance of the latest production resources and the labor of a new type of workers whose main activity is creativity. The transformation of knowledge and information directly into a productive force, the main production resource, complicates the correct assessment of production costs and labor costs (in the field of intellectual production).

As a factor of production, knowledge and information have certain characteristics: firstly, they contradictoryly combine infinity and rarity, objective nature and subjectivism, and the impossibility of reproduction. It can even be argued that the dissemination of information is identical to its self-expansion, which excludes the application of the concept of rarity to this phenomenon; secondly, information cannot be used in the traditional sense of this concept. The use of information by any consumer does not limit the ability of others to simultaneously use the same information for their own purposes; thirdly, the information that is available a huge number people, can actually be assimilated only by a small part of them.

The consumption of information does not limit the possibility of its use by other members of society, but this process itself is due to the presence of each specific person's specific abilities, skills and abilities.

In the context of the information revolution, the very form of ownership is changing. "What do those who increase informational value use? - T. Sakaya answers: - A designer needs a table, a pencil and other tools for the graphic embodiment of his ideas. Photographers and correspondents need cameras. Most programmers need only small computers to work. All these tools are not so expensive and affordable for any person, "as a result of which" in modern society the tendency to separate capital from the worker is changing by the opposite trend - their combination.

The information revolution deprives the ruling class of the industrial society of the monopoly on the means of production, on which their dominant position in society was based. This monopoly is being destroyed in the information sphere, because personal ownership of the means of production is used, first of all, not to expand the production of standardized goods, but to create information products, technologies and software.

Personal property differs from private property in that it does not determine the social position of people as economic entities. This type of property, so to speak, conditions man's freedom from society.

On the contrary, private property reflects the dependence of a person on the economic system, because it exists only as an element of the market economy, in the conditions of alienation of the worker from the means of production.

The foundation of the institutional structure of a post-industrial society is personal property, which makes a person an independent participant in social production. Its status in this system will depend on the extent to which the products or services created by it will have individual utility for other members of society. At the same time, the role of private property will gradually decrease and lose its significance.

The confrontation between the capitalist and the employee as owners of the means of production and labor power, which is characteristic of an industrial society, is replaced by interaction between workers who are able to independently develop their own production, who work as partners on mutually beneficial terms, because the main contradiction of the market economy is removed - the antagonism of the interests of the employer and employee.

In conditions when the confrontation between the employee and the employer is gradually removed, because the worker, working creatively, simultaneously becomes a "means of production" (that is, it becomes impossible to alienate the product or service he creates), the very phenomenon of exploitation of the worker disappears. "Overcoming exploitation, advocates reverse side replacement of labor by creative activity.

So, the transition to a post-industrial society contains a set of not only "external" (general civil), but also "internal" changes in the person himself.

The signs of a post-industrial society at the level of an individual include a decrease in the role of material motives for activity, because in conditions where creativity is the main activity and at the same time one of the basic needs, the needs for self-realization and social recognition are of paramount importance.

An increase in the material standard of living creates potential prerequisites for the formation of a new motivational system. Freed from the need to constantly search for means to meet urgent needs, a person gets access to the whole variety of values, to self-development, as a result of which the level of education of a modern person is growing. It is the intellectual abilities of a person and his education to a large extent determine in a post-industrial society, both the level of his income and social status.

In the context of socio-economic transformations, information, knowledge, and creativity become the key elements of the productive forces; in their integrity and synergy, they form intellectual capital, which becomes the dominant factor of production.

Thus, in order to take into account all the changes taking place both in the economy of a post-industrial society and in its institutions, it is necessary to form a new theoretical concept. This is the role that the new political economy can play. As domestic scientists aptly note, "a new initial conceptual scheme, a model for setting problems and methods for solving them is in the process of formation, therefore it is rather potentially promising, because it does not yet dominate the system of traditional methodology" .

The principles of the new political economy of the study of post-industrial society:

departure from the ideology of economism and economic determinism;

replacement of the analysis of the subjectless model with a human-centric one, the perception of a person as the goal of economic activity, taking into account his needs and interests;

perception and consideration in the economic study of the multidimensionality and complexity of economic life;

recognition of the equality of economic and non-economic factors in the development of modern economic and economic systems;

using the principle of methodological pluralism in economic research;

construction of a study based on a systematic method.

Today it becomes quite obvious that a person's choice is not just a comparison of economic benefits and the determination of the best option, but something else - obtaining moral satisfaction from the fulfillment of subjective needs. In the scientific community, more and more often we are talking about the rejection of the "consumer" society and the formation of a human personality, becoming the basis for the formation and development of a post-industrial society and economy, so economic determinism is losing its relevance.

Overcoming the subjectless, impersonal analysis of economic processes and phenomena, focusing on the creation of a human-centric economic mechanism becomes the basis economic development, because it is difficult to deny the fact that the excessive simplification of economic reality, the isolation of reality from the theoretical model has become one of the root causes of the crisis of economic theory, which is observed today. That is why the new political economy puts man as the goal of activity, and not its instrument, at the center of its study.

In the conditions of the formation of a post-industrial society, it becomes necessary to take into account the multidimensionality and complexity of economic life in economic research, to recognize the need for a synthesizing mentally-no, because using the tools of one approach or school, we reveal only part of the truth, leaving the whole problem out of attention. Therefore, the principle of methodological pluralism has become widespread in the new research methodology. Representatives of methodological pluralism in the philosophy of economics (B. Caldwell, L. Boland, D. McCloskey, and others) advocate "the freedom to choose a research method."

According to B. Caldwell, the defining position in methodological pluralism is that "there is no universal, logically perfect method for evaluating a theory." The practical value of methodological pluralism lies in the fact that it "frees the hands" of the researcher, does not keep him within the framework of the research methodology recognized for a while, while significantly expanding the tools of his work.

Today, with the satisfaction of the basic needs of the main part of the population of post-industrial countries, it becomes possible to realize a person as creative personality and its cultural development. With changes in the structure and quality of the elements of the productive forces, property relations in the XX century.

Conditions are being created both for changing the role of man in the production system and for formulating a qualitatively new paradigm for solving the theoretical and practical problems of this change. Understanding creative labor as the main type of human activity, its free internal needs and the sources of human existence as a member of society is necessary condition transformation of the industrial economy, industrial society into a post-industrial society.

Therefore, it is necessary to systematize these changes, which can be carried out within the framework of the new political economy, which will specialize precisely in the study of patterns and institutional forms of relations between people in the process of their interaction, showing contradictions and ways to overcome them in the conditions of the formation of a new socio-economic system - post-industrial society.

So, in the first chapter, we examined the main problems of the modern post-industrial society, analyzed its transition to the information society.

post-industrial society bell science

Chapter 2. Bell's theory and its role in the processes of post-industrial society

Daniel Bell (born in 1919) in his concept proceeds from the fact that the "new industrial society", about which D. Galbraith wrote, is in a deep crisis, but will soon be transformed into something else. According to Bell, it will be a post-industrial new society, a society of mutual services. Today less and less less people are employed in the production of things, and more and more - in the production of services, in the field of culture, science, in the entertainment industry, and finally, in the field of public services. Already in the 1980s, in the most developed countries, the number of people employed in the service sector exceeded two-thirds of the total number of employees. Even social groups today are formed not in relation to property, but according to professions.

One of the main points in the concepts of futurologists is the idea of ​​the information society. In our time, information is becoming not only a commodity, but also an instrument of domination. D. Bell argues that information is a specific commodity that is not subject to the usual pricing methods. In addition, this product cannot be consumed individual, its consumer is society.

D. Bell's main work - "Meeting 2000" ("Towads the Year 2000", 1968) - was translated into Russian and is very popular. No less famous is his book: "The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture of Social Forecasting", 1973, in which the author argues that the development of the information society and production leads to a revolution in engineering and technology. production. The social relations created by the new networks of information (from the exchange of information between researchers through computers to the broad social homogeneity created by national television) are no longer the labor relations of an industrial society. We are witnessing the emergence of a completely different type of social structure compared to those already known.

D. Bell endows the information society with features that cover mainly new phenomena in the development of modern productive forces. Here is the centralization of theoretical knowledge, which becomes the basis for changes in production, and the creation of intelligent technology that allows finding the most rational ways to solve engineering, economic and social problems, and the transition from the production of goods to the production of services. An important sign of post-industrialism Bell declares a change in the nature of labor, which consists in the fact that nature is excluded from the framework of labor and everyday life, since in a post-industrial society, work becomes, first of all, a game of man with man. However, the main thing in Bell's position on the problem of the nature of labor in the future society is that, recognizing the historical nature of specific labor, he seeks to remove the question of changes in the socio-economic essence of labor in the process of modern socio-historical development.

Post-industrial society is seen by Bell as based on a "game for people", in which, against the background of machine technology, information-based intellectual technology rises.

D. Bell considers the nature and forms of state science to be the central political problem of such a society. Bell writes: “The post-industrial society is based on services, so it is a game for people. The main thing is not muscle strength, energy, but information. A professional becomes the main character, since his experience and education allow her to meet all the requirements of society. If the pre-industrial society is defined by the quantity of goods that promote the standard of living, then the post-industrial society is defined by the quality of life, measured by services and various amenities - health care, education, recreation and culture.

Sphere of economy: transition from the production of goods to the production of services;

The scope of employment is the predominance of the class of professional specialists and technicians;

Axis Principle: the leading role of theoretical knowledge as a source of innovation and policy in society;

Future orientation: control over technology and technological performance assessments;

Decision-making process: creation of “new intelligent technology.

D Bell: "Public knowledge is a set of subordinate factors or judgments that constitute a reasoned statement or experimental result that can be given to others."

Bell lists 5 types of knowledge:

) practical knowledge suitable for use in work, decisions and actions:

professional,

Entrepreneurial,

Knowledge of physical skills

Knowledge in the field of housekeeping and others.

) Intellectual knowledge

) Futility and entertainment knowledge

) Spiritual knowledge

) Unwanted knowledge, are in the sphere of human interests

When knowledge in its systematic form is involved in practical processing (as an invention or organizational improvement), it can be said that it is knowledge, and not labor, that is the source of value. Economists in concepts, explain production and exchange, use "land, capital and labor" as the main variables.

More insightful researchers - for example, U. Sombart and J. Schumpeter - supplement this triad with such important concepts as "business initiative" and "entrepreneurship." But despite this, an analytical approach to economics dominates, which emphasizes certain combinations of capital and labor in the spirit of the labor theory of value, while almost completely ignoring the role of knowledge or organizational innovations and management. However, with the shortening of the working day and the diminishing role of the production worker, one can understand that knowledge and methods of its practical application are replacing labor as a source of surplus value. In this sense, just as labor and capital were the central variables in an industrial society, so information and knowledge become the decisive variables in a post-industrial society.

Bell argues: “The most important feature of the third of the twentieth century and what is needed today is better management and widespread use of expert judgment. Today it seems likely that in a post-industrial society the role of politics will become greater than ever before. Since the decision to allocate funds to a certain scientific project, and not some other, is made against the market, political center... ».

Due to the fact that knowledge and technology have become the main resource of society, certain political decisions are forced. Therefore, knowledge institutions claim certain public funds.

Bell initially poses the question, "What is a corporation?" If we return to the original meaning of this term, then the corporation served as an instrument of self-government of groups engaged in common activities; it often had common assets, and its existence continued for generations. Profitability and productivity serve as indicators of corporate success. They are the criteria for satisfying market requirements, as well as the efficient allocation of resources within the firm and among members of society.

The corporation has become for many employees a matter of their lives, so it can become an organization with a narrow purpose, but must become an acceptable lifestyle for its members. She should respond to her clients as she should, but she should also be pleasant for herself.

Bell's ways of developing technologies:

Invention (based on the results of scientific discoveries);

Innovations;

Distribution (determined by the market).

Bell highlights the essential features of the coming society:

The centralization of theoretical knowledge becomes the basis for changes in production;

Creation of a new intellectual technology for solving economic, engineering, social problems;

Formation of a class of producers of knowledge, information (the US group, together with managers, makes up more than 25 workforce), the transition of the dominant in the production of goods to the production of services;

Changing power relations: in pre-industrial society - aristocracy, monarchy, in industrial society - democracy, in post-industrial society - meritocracy (from Latin meritos - deserved);

Economics of information. Information is a collective product. It is necessary to move from an individual competitive strategy to a cooperative strategy of cooperation.

According to Bell, information plays a big role in the development of post-industrial society.

"Information Society" expresses the idea of ​​a new phase in historical development advanced countries. That is, not the advent of a "post-industrial" society, but the creation of a new social model, is the result of the "second industrial revolution", which is mainly based on microelectronic technology. A growing number of people are necessarily drawn into an unprecedented variety of information-oriented types of work. Scientific and technical workers collect and produce information, managers and specialists process it, teachers and communication workers disseminate it.This process of "informatization" does not leave untouched one area of ​​social activity: from Everyday life before international relations and from the spheres of leisure to industrial relations.

Concepts such as Alvin Toffler's "Third Wave" (virtually synonymous with "information society") have entered the popular imagination. The film "Third Wave" was made, and in the United Kingdom of Great Britain "Third Wave" is the slogan of "British Telecom Advertising Campaign". As we approach the third millennium, the notion of the "information society" in which all discussions about the "future" are focused is increasingly being used as a convenient catch-all. Government policy also follows from this concept, especially with regard to education. Now the British are convinced: "Our education system should be an important, maybe even dominant factor that will ensure the economic prosperity of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in the world's information society."

However, some questions are often not realized or have evasive or unclear answers. What is the relationship between new technology and society? To what extent and under what circumstances does technological potential become social destiny? And if, one way or another, we are witnessing the emergence of a "new type of society", are its advocates right in arguing (as they often strive to do) that the social effects of information technology are generally positive?

However, at the end of modernity, the question remains whether the concept of the "information society" should be relegated to the dustbin of redundant ideas, or whether it will survive as a tool for social analysis. Or perhaps it should be abandoned precisely because it can be more legitimately used with the emergence of more and more new "microchip" devices than because of its ability to explain social reality?

There is another aspect of this issue. The concept of "information society" sounds like a hopeful note in the midst of a general recession. In Japan, it has found full support among a certain group of people as a unifying slogan for boosting research and entrepreneurship. If any social forecast is pessimistic, such that only decline (economic) or catastrophe (nuclear) is ahead, then the concept of the "information society" sounds positive and obviously gives some meaning to social intentions and goals. At a time when intellectuals are mourning the end of progress or the insufficiency of utopias, the old idea that a good society grows out of a modern one is being revived. Thus, not only the use of this concept for social analysis, but also its social role within a national and global context deserves further study.

Paradoxically, the "information society" has both ideological and utopian aspects. And none of them should be left unattended. Let us consider four important proofs of what has been said with appropriate remarks.

Firstly, the "information society" raises the question of new circumstances, but not at all in the same perspective as its well-known supporters think about it. As I have already shown, hopes for the creation of a "new society" are quite often based on the very dubious economic argument about the dominance of a new "information sector". Its manifestations can be seen in the increasing reliance on microelectronics, computerization and communications, and in the growing number of "information workers" who bring about the expected social change, justify the talk of "information revolution" and "information society".

But where the idea of ​​an information society depends on versions of technological determinism, it must meet resistance. Such determinism is demonstratively false. Technological development has no predetermined social effects that can be predicted to be beneficial universally or only for a given occasion. It can be thought of as derived from the social entity itself, including some deliberate political, economic, and cultural preferences.

Conclusion

In the 1970s, industrialized countries entered a stage of development that leads them to the formation of a new type of society, which is most often defined as information society. There are other definitions: new industrial - D. Galbraith, technotronic - Brzezinski, post-industrial - Bell.

But all researchers note its one key feature - information becomes a commodity and an industry of knowledge and information production is formed. The transition from an industrial to a post-industrial society was accompanied by significant progress in both science and technology, called the scientific and technological revolution (STR).

But the progress of mankind has put on the agenda a number of problems that cannot leave a single person indifferent, they affect the fate of the entire human civilization and each person individually. Therefore, these problems are considered global. These include: environmental, social, political, economic, spiritual. The solution of these problems is possible only through the concerted efforts of all people.

An important trend is likely to be globalization (the spread of the action of certain factors beyond the boundaries of individual state territories on a worldwide scale). Many researchers see globalization as a sign of the beginning of the formation of a single planetary civilization. As a result, the interdependence of local civilizations is significantly enhanced, which today are no longer able to lead a separate, isolated existence. The events taking place in a particular country quite often also affect the fate of its neighbors, and sometimes the world as a whole. Globalization has both negative manifestations (world wars, major economic crises, the threat of using weapons of mass destruction) and positive aspects (the formation of a system of "global division of labor" and the world market, strengthening the authority of international organizations, the exchange of cultural achievements and scientific knowledge, the dissemination of optimal forms of economic, social and political life, decisively limiting the sphere of military production). These tendencies are of a generalized nature. Who determined them, there are only temporary, and therefore in the future new civilizational foundations may be formed. What exactly will the civilization of the 21st century be like? What awaits us: the apocalypse or the golden age? The answer to these questions will be given by the activity of the person himself.

List of used literature

1. Bell D. The coming post-industrial society. Experience of social forecasting / D. Bell. - M.: Academia, 1999. - 773 p.

Sakaya T. The value created by knowledge, or the history of the future [Electronic resource] / T. Sakaya / / New post-industrial wave in the West: Anthology; ed. V.L. Inozemtseva. - M.: Academia, 1999. - 632 p.

Access mode: #"justify">. Toynbee A. Civilization before the court of history / A. Toynbee. - M.: Iris-Press, 2006. - 592 p.

Toffler E. The Third Wave / E. Toffler. - M.: AST, 2004. - 784 p.

Huntington S. A clash of civilizations? [Electronic resource] / S. Huntington. - Article access mode: www.nbuv.gov.ua/polit/93hssc.htm.

Inozemtsev V.L. Modern post-industrial society: nature, contradictions, prospects [Electronic resource] / V.L. Foreigners. - M.: Logos, 2000. - 304 p. - Access mode: #"justify">7. Caldwell B.J. Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the twentieth century / B.J. Caldwell. - London, 1982. - 304 p.

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D. Bell was one of the first philosophers to talk about a post-industrial society. In an expanded form, the concept of post-industrialism is presented in his book "The Coming Post-Industrial Society. The Experience of Social Forecasting", published in 1973. Dividing the history of human society into three stages - agrarian, industrial and post-industrial,

D. Bell sought to outline the contours of a post-industrial society, largely starting from the characteristics of the industrial stage. Like other theorists of industrialism, he interprets industrial society as organized around the production of things and machines for the production of things. The concept of an industrial society, he emphasizes, covers the past and present of various countries that may belong to opposite political systems, including such antagonists as the USA and the USSR.

It is the industrial character of society, according to Bell, that determines its social structure, including the system of professions and social strata. The social structure is thus separated from the political and cultural component of society. According to D. Bell, the changes taking place in the middle of the 20th century in social structure indicate that the industrial society is evolving towards the post-industrial one, which should become the defining social form of the 21st century, primarily in the USA, Japan, the Soviet Union and Western Europe.

Bell singles out the following as the main features of the post-industrial society: 1. Replacement of mechanical, electrical and electromechanical means with electronic ones. Telephony, television, printing and much more - all this is carried out using electronic devices. 2. Miniaturization has taken place. Computers have been greatly reduced in size, while at the same time greatly gaining in quality. 3.Conversion to digital form. Here it is appropriate to mention the work of J. Lyotard "The State of Postmodernity", in which the philosopher declares that the dream of Russell and the early Wittgenstein, who were looking for universal language. Such a language has been found. This is the language that this moment used by the entire scientific and non-scientific community – language binary system calculus. 4. Creation of software that adapts the computer to the needs of the consumer. The post-industrial stage is characterized by a transition from the production of things to the production of services “In a post-industrial society, new types of services are becoming widespread.

If an industrial society is an organization of machines and people for the production of things, then the central place in a post-industrial society, according to D. Bell, is occupied by knowledge, and, moreover, theoretical knowledge. In his work “The Coming Post-Industrial Society”, he writes the following: “... of course, knowledge is necessary for the functioning of any society. But hallmark post-industrial society is the special nature of knowledge.

The central role of theoretical knowledge, which assumes the primacy of theory over empiricism and the codification of knowledge in abstract systems of symbols that can be used to interpret various changing realms of experience, is of paramount importance for the organization of decisions and the direction of change.

The expression "post-industrial society" is widely used in modern literature, and almost every author endows it with his own special meaning. This situation is not least related to the fact that the word "post-industrial" itself indicates only the position of this type of society in the time sequence of stages of development - "after industrial", and not its own characteristics.

Bell's expression "information society" is a new name for the post-industrial society, emphasizing not its position in the sequence of stages of social development - after the industrial society - but the basis for determining its social structure - information. Information for Bell is associated primarily with scientific, theoretical knowledge.

The information society in Bell's interpretation has all the main characteristics of a post-industrial society (service economy, the central role of theoretical knowledge, future orientation and technology management due to it, the development of new intellectual technology). In the coming century, - says D. Bell, - the establishment of a new social structure based on telecommunications will be of decisive importance for economic and social life, for the methods of knowledge production, as well as for the nature of human labor activity. This will lead to the emergence of a single space, including the economic one: “Borders between countries have almost completely disappeared. Capital goes where (given political stability) there is the greatest return on investment or added value.”

In the original version of the concept of post-industrialism, emphasis was placed on the fact that the development of electronic computing technology makes it possible to process huge amounts of information for decision-making, primarily for government structures. Bell's concept of the information society emphasizes the importance of providing access to the necessary information for individuals and groups, the author sees the problems of the threat of police and political surveillance of individuals and groups using sophisticated information technologies. Bell considers knowledge and information not only "an agent of transformation of a post-industrial society", but also a "strategic resource" of such a society. In this context, he formulates the problem of the information theory of value. When knowledge in its systematic form is involved in the practical processing of resources (in the form of an invention or organizational improvement), it can be said that it is knowledge, and not labor, that is the source of value.

State educational institution

higher professional education

"PENZA STATE TECHNOLOGICAL ACADEMY"

Department of Applied Economics

Discipline "Network Economics"

on the topic: The theory of post-industrial development D. Bell

Performed:

student of group 06E1

Kutasina E.A.

Penza, 2010

Introduction

1. Daniel Bell

3. Society and state

4. Information as a specific type of product

Conclusion

Literature

Introduction

The theory of post-industrial society was formed as a result of a comprehensive analysis of a qualitatively new situation that developed in the 60s and 70s in developed industrial countries. The efforts of the founders of the theory were directed precisely at the discovery of the characteristic features of the emerging new society.

The overwhelming majority of researchers named as its main features a radical acceleration of technological progress, a decrease in the role of material production, expressed, in particular, in a decrease in its share in the total social product, the development of the service and information sector, a change in the motives and nature of human activity, the emergence of a new type of involved in the production of resources, a significant modification of the entire social structure.

The theory of post-industrialism is based on the recognition that the source of progressive development and its measure is the improvement of the form and methods of production. The post-industrial direction distinguishes three large phases in the history of mankind:

agrarian society

industrial society

post-industrial society

Post-industrial analysis theorists define post-industrial society as a society based on high technologies.

One of the representatives of the post-industrial theory is Daniel Bell.

1 Daniel Bell

D. Bell is an American sociologist and publicist, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Born May 10, 1919 in New York. After graduation, he taught sociology at Columbia (1959-1969), and then at Harvard University. Bell's first major publication, The End of Ideology (1960), established him as one of America's leading social and political theorists.

Along with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Bell led the so-called "consensus school," a liberal-centrist current that dominated American intellectual life in the 1950s. The key thesis of this school was the statement about the exhaustion of traditional political ideologies. Bell opposed communism, fascism, and other "program" ideologies with a liberal commitment to moderate social reformism, the free market, and individual civil liberties. Unlike liberal nationalist theorists (such as Daniel Burstein) or neoconservatives (such as Irving Kristol), Bell did not seek to exaggerate the degree of cultural homogeneity in American society or the prevalence of middle-class values.

The book by D. Bell, an outstanding American sociologist, the founder of the concept of post-industrial society, contains a presentation of all the main elements of post-industrial theory. First published in the United States in 1973, it was the result of understanding the processes that took place in the US economy and public life in the postwar decades. It presents a deep analysis of the main trends in the change in the ratio of sectors of social production, the formation of the service economy, the formation of scientific knowledge as an independent element of the production forces. The role and place of post-industrial society in the overall picture of social progress is assessed.

2. The main meaning of the post-industrial concept of D. Bell

The post-industrial society is considered by Bell as based on a “game between people”, in which, against the background of machine technology, an intellectual technology based on information rises.

D. Bell considers the nature and forms of state support for science to be the central political problem of such a society.

“Post-industrial society is based on services, so it is a game between people. The main value is no longer muscular strength, energy, but information. A professional becomes the main actor, because his experience and education allow him to meet all the requirements of a post-industrial society. If a pre-industrial society is defined in terms of the number of goods that indicate the standard of living, then a post-industrial society is defined by the quality of life, measured by services and various amenities - health care, education, recreation and culture.

The sphere of economy: the transition from the production of goods to the production of services

Employment: predominance of the professional and technician class

Axial principle: the leading role of theoretical knowledge as a source of innovation and the determination of policy in society

Future Orientation: Technology Control and Technology Performance Assessments

Decision-making process: creating a "new intelligent technology"

D Bell: "Public knowledge is a set of subordinate factors or judgments that constitute a reasoned statement or experimental result that can be shared with other people."

Bell lists 5 types of knowledge:

1) practical knowledge that is suitable for use in work, decisions and actions:

professional,

Entrepreneurial,

Knowledge of physical skills

Knowledge in housekeeping, etc.

2) Intellectual knowledge

3) Useless and entertaining knowledge

4) Spiritual knowledge

5) unwanted knowledge that is in the sphere of human interests

When knowledge in its systematic form is involved in practical processing (in the form of an invention or organizational improvement), it can be said that it is knowledge, and not labor, that is the source of value. Economists use "land, capital and labor" as the main variables in their concepts of production and exchange.

More insightful researchers - for example, W. Sombart and J. Schumpeter - supplement this triad with such important concepts as "business initiative" and "entrepreneurship." But, despite this, the analytical approach to economics still dominates, which emphasizes certain combinations of capital and labor in the spirit of the labor theory of value, while almost completely ignoring the role of knowledge or organizational innovation and management. However, with the reduction of working time and the diminishing role of the production worker, it becomes clear that knowledge and the methods of its practical application are replacing labor as a source of surplus value. In this sense, just as labor and capital were the central variables in industrial society, so information and knowledge become the decisive variables in post-industrial society.

3. Society and state

Bell states the following: “The most important feature of the third of the 20th century is that today there is a need for better management and greater use of expert judgment. Today, it is more likely that in a post-industrial society the role of politics will become greater than ever before. …. Since the decision to allocate funds for a certain scientific project, and not some other, is made in contrast to the market, the political center ... "

Due to the fact that knowledge and technology have become the main resource of society, some political decisions are predetermined. Therefore, the institutions of knowledge claim certain public funds.

Bell poses the question from the very beginning: "So what is a corporation?" If we return to the original meaning of this term, then the corporation served as an instrument of self-government of groups engaged in common activities; it often had common assets, and its existence continued for generations.

Bell, on the other hand, says: “In niche days, a business corporation should be considered within the original coloring of the term ...”

Economic side. Profitability and productivity serve as indicators of corporate success. They are the criteria for satisfying market requirements, as well as the efficient allocation of resources both within the firm and among members of society.

Social side. The corporation is an institution designed to economize. At the same time, it represents a certain way of life for its members.

The corporation has become for many employees their life's work, so it cannot become an organization with a narrow purpose, but must become an acceptable lifestyle for its members. She must not only satisfy her clients, but she must also be pleasing to herself.

Bell's ways of developing technologies:

Invention (Based on scientific discoveries);

Innovation (Organizationally adaptable);

Distribution (Determined by the market).

Bell highlights the essential features of the coming society:

Centralization of theoretical knowledge, which becomes the basis for changes in production;

Creation of a new intellectual technology for solving economic, engineering, social problems;

Formation of a class of producers of knowledge, information (in the US, the group, together with managers, makes up more than 25 percent of the workforce), the transition of the dominant from the production of goods to the production of services;

In the works devoted to the description of the structure of modern society, two terms are widely used, which are often perceived as synonyms, although there are significant differences between them. This is a “post-industrial society” and an “information society”.

Daniel Bell, in his book The Coming Post-Industrial Society: A Social Prediction Experience, inspired this term. new life. The book was a great success and was perceived by intellectuals as a foresight of the world, which was already on the threshold. Bell was the first of many sociologists who tried to look into the future and describe it, understood the importance of information and the significance of the development of communication technologies and analyzed this in detail in his work.

Before proceeding to the provisions of the theory of post-industrial society, it must be emphasized that Bell himself does not at all claim that such a PIE really exists or will definitely appear in the coming years. Bell emphasizes in every possible way that the PIO is an analytical construct, a tool for theoretical analysis: “The post-industrial society is an ideal type, a construction compiled by a social analyst on the basis of various changes in society, which, brought together, become more or less interconnected and can be opposed other concepts.

Already in the 1990s, Bell suggested replacing the term "post-industrialism" with the term "information society", but he did not provide arguments in favor of such a replacement. Most likely, he stated the fact that both in scientific circles and in the mass consciousness, these two terms have merged and are used separated by commas.

In his work, Bell makes the methodological assumption that any society cannot be considered as a whole. It is divided into three areas: social structure, politics and culture. Thus, Bell denies the inevitability that processes in one area affect events in another. Spheres exist independently of each other, autonomously.

The social structure of society consists of economic and technological elements. This is a system of social relations formed due to changes in the structure of employment, which in turn is based on the economic superiority of some members of society over others. Political institutions allow conflict situations that arise in society, primarily in the course of the functioning of economic mechanisms. Finally, culture contains a stabilizing principle, ensures the continuity of generations, the continuity of historical development.

The division into spheres allows Bell to leave out politics and culture in his analysis of the social structure of society. This greatly simplifies the processes taking place in society as a whole, and gives the researcher the opportunity to draw rather bold conclusions.

Bell believes that significant changes occur only in the social structure of society, but nevertheless this is sufficient reason to proclaim the onset of a new stage of social development - post-industrialism.

The theory of post-industrialism suggests that any society in its development goes through three stages: pre-industrial (traditional, agrarian), industrial (industrial) and post-industrial.

In a pre-industrial society, most of the population (about 90%) is employed in agriculture, and the main types of economic activity are concentrated in the extractive sector - agriculture, fishing, and mining. All the efforts of the agrarian society are aimed at feeding the population. Many countries in Africa and Latin America are still at this stage of social development. In a pre-industrial society, “time is understood only as a duration, as long and short periods of it, and the pace of work depends on the season and weather conditions ... labor productivity is low, the economy depends on unstable external processes and the vagaries of commodity prices in international markets. The basic cell of social life is the big family.

An industrial society is based on industrial production. It uses energy and machine technology to produce goods. Thanks to the industrial revolution, 10% of the population employed in the agricultural sector produced enough food to feed the entire population. The essence of an industrial society, according to Bell, lies in the efficiency of production, which is achieved through maximization and optimization. Two main figures of industrial society are moving to the fore - the engineer and the semi-skilled worker. The role of an engineer is to organize work in an enterprise, while a semi-skilled worker is an element of industrial production, devoid of personal qualities, an animated machine that performs routine work. The fate of this tragic figure of a semi-skilled worker is predetermined, because the day will come when an engineer will come up with a technology that will allow us to move to fully automated production. As a result, a semi-skilled worker will end up in the "dump of history".

In his description of the life of a working industrial society, Bell is clearly exaggerating. If the American sociologist sought to prove only that the “post-industrial society” is not a futurological fantasy, but a forecast based on the results of numerous sociological studies, fragments of the description of the life of a person in an industrial society would not be so pessimistically sharpened. But Bell sets himself a much more global goal: he proves that the “post-industrial society” will finally allow every person to devote his life to himself, to realize his many desires. Behind the figures of sociological studies are hidden utopian descriptions of the future life. Bell's difference from other authors of utopian works is that his "utopia" has already partially become a reality.

The post-industrial society is built on the exchange of knowledge and information, which takes place with the help of information networks and computers. Most of population is employed in the service sector, the number of people employed in industry is constantly declining. Such changes in the structure of employment of the population occur due to the growth of productivity up to the full automation of production. Employment is moving to the service sector, machine technology is being replaced by intellectual and information technology.

Bell states that in a post-industrial society, the prestige of education is increasing, and white-collar workers are beginning to rule the world. If at the beginning of the 20th century the number of manual workers was ten times greater than the number of white-collar workers, then in the second half of the century rapid growth the number of the latter.

In order to survive, humanity for the most part is no longer forced to engage in hard physical labor and gets the opportunity to organize their leisure time and monitor their health. The growth of wealth allows people to satisfy the new needs that arise.

The service sector in a post-industrial society includes finance, education, Scientific research, healthcare, transport, consumer services (shops, restaurants, fitness centers, etc.), real estate, insurance. Machine production disappears from the daily life of most people, it remains outside their world, the population only consumes the goods produced. Bell emphasizes that it is in the post-industrial society that for the first time in the history of mankind, a person spends his working time not on interaction with untouched nature, as was the case in pre-industrial society, or with transformed nature, as was the case in the industrial era. A citizen of a post-industrial society interacts with other people and provides them with the necessary information.

In the transition from industrial to post-industrial society, there are several stages, or, as Bell himself calls them, stages. At the first stage, the development of public services and transport takes place, that is, those services that allow you to deliver goods produced at the enterprise to the right place in the shortest possible time. As long as systemic changes in the social structure are imperceptible, everything is subordinated to the interests of production. The growth in the number of "white-collar workers" begins at the second stage, when the consumption of goods becomes massive, and the population still has insignificant means to improve the quality of life. Wholesale and retail trade, finance, real estate and insurance are developing dynamically. Finally, the third stage comes when “as the national income rises, it is discovered ... that the share of money spent on food begins to decline, and the rest is used first for the purchase of durable goods (clothes, cars and housing), and then for luxury goods, for recreation and so on, the tertiary sector, the sphere of personal services, begins to expand: chains of restaurants, hotels, car workshops, the travel, entertainment and sports industry” 1 .

The conditions for entering a post-industrial society are high-quality education and health care. If in an industrial society the key figure is a semi-skilled worker, then in a post-industrial society it is a professional whose education and experience allow him to perform complex operations in his daily work. Receipt higher education- this is a mandatory requirement for a citizen of a post-industrial society. Ideally, he should study all his life, constantly updating the accumulated knowledge and attending advanced training programs. In a post-industrial society, the class of knowledge carriers, the class of technical specialists, is constantly growing, and at some point they become the largest social group.

The main resource of the emerging post-industrial society is scientific personnel, and "their distribution by sectors (industry, state, universities) and functions (production, research and teaching) is the basis of any thoughtful policy regarding the use of limited social resources" .

The growth in health care is driven by the desire of people to increase life expectancy. If in a pre-industrial and industrial society a person, first of all, cared about survival, then in a post-industrial society he strives for a decent and long life. The most important thing is that he has free time to take care of your health, and health care services become available.

So, the onset of a post-industrial society is accompanied by the growth of the service sector and the reduction of the industrial and agricultural sectors. Critics of Daniel Bell such as Gershuni, Miles, Webster, trying to refute this thesis, put forward the following argument: "More than half of the growth in employment in the service sector is the result of intra-sector growth in tertiary, not inter-sector shifts." Criticism is based on the fact that the division into sectors is speculative and is possible only on the pages of a scientific work. The application of theory to reality inevitably encounters the difficulty of what to attribute to the tertiary service sector and what to the secondary industrial sector.

The service sector is not always limited to the tertiary sector. A public relations specialist working for an insurance company works in the service sector, while a public relations specialist working in a nuclear reactor plant may be classified as an industrial sector. Thus, it should rather be said that the owners industrial enterprises realized the need for service professionals to promote their product on the market, and not at all about the onset of a post-industrial society in which the service sector is growing. It is the owners of industrial enterprises who increase the number of "white collars" in their state, and this indicates that the interests of the industrial sector still determine the direction of social development.

At first glance, the profound criticism of Bell's work actually has shaky foundations. Indeed, the growth in employment in the service sector is also the result of an intra-sector increase in tertiary. However, this proves Bell right. Plant owners hire highly qualified service professionals because marketing, not manufacturing, has become the main link in the technological chain in our time, and it is the service sector that ensures the profitability of the enterprise. Thus, the invitation of specialists in the service sector is the only possible behavior of an enterprise in a competitive market.

Investing in the service sector at this stage of social development is much more profitable than in production. It is in the services sector that investors are more likely to make excess profits with a competent investment of funds. Enterprises in the industrial sector are not able to provide statistics that are as pleasing to the eye.

Changes in employment in the post-industrial society are associated not only with the redistribution of human resources between the industrial sector and the service sector. If in the industrial sector workers were required to have muscular strength, then the qualifications of workers in the service sector are determined by their knowledge, not physical capabilities. Thus, the post-industrial society provides women with a unique opportunity to fulfill themselves in the profession and become economically independent from men.

In addition to employment growth in the service sector, Bell highlights another primary qualitative characteristic of a post-industrial society - the key role of theoretical knowledge in technological innovation, economic development and social life. As a result of the scientific and technological revolution, science turned into a direct productive force, which became the main factor in both the development of society and its self-preservation. Bell argues that if in the previous stages of social development the prerequisite for technological innovation was empirical experience and inventors often had no education and were self-taught, then in a post-industrial society all inventions are based on theoretical principles formulated by scientists. A striking example of the influence of theoretical developments on social progress is the growth of science-intensive industries (the production of computers, electronic equipment).

The actions of politicians and economists are also conditioned by the concepts or models that their environment adheres to. For example, the measures that the government takes to combat inflation and unemployment are determined by whether the finance minister is a Keynesian or a classical macroeconomist. If the Minister of Culture believes that the main thing in art is continuity, he will allocate money for staging plays by Chekhov and Gogol. If he adheres to postmodernist views on art, public funds will be spent on staging plays by contemporary playwrights. Thus, theoretical knowledge influences decision-making in all spheres of post-industrial society. The application of new intelligent technologies, to which Bell classifies methods such as computer linear programming, Markov chains, stochastic processes, becomes a catalyst for profound social change, because new technologies allow finding effective solutions to economic, political and social problems.

Bell is a supporter of technological determinism, a scientific movement whose representatives believe that new technologies will transform social relations and a person's worldview. He identifies five ways in which technology can influence social life.

• 1. By allowing the production of more goods with less cost, technological advances are the main means of raising living standards.
• 2. The development of technology has created a new class, previously unknown in society - the class of engineers and technicians, people who are not directly involved in productive labor, but who represent the "planning apparatus" of operations that form the production process.
• 3. Technological progress has created a new definition of rationality, a new way of thinking that emphasizes functional relationships and quantitative indicators.
• 4. Revolutions in the field of transport and transmission of information, which were the result of the development of technology, created new economic relationships and new social interactions. New complexes of social relationships arose (first of all, there was a shift from ties based on kinship to those based on professional characteristics and occupation).
• 5. Aesthetic ideas have changed radically, especially those relating to space and time. The ancients did not know the concept of speed and movement in the sense in which they exist now.

As can be seen from the presented list, from Bell's point of view, the impact of technology on social development is very significant. Actually technologies are the engine of social development.

V sociological research In the industrial era, it is customary to divide society into horizontal units of society, that is, classes and strata. For example, in the Soviet Union it was customary to single out two classes in Western society - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie exploited the labor of the proletariat, which was in fact subordinate to the bourgeoisie. The division of society into horizontal units just provides that they enter into relations of superiority-subordination with each other. However, in a post-industrial society, a person becomes much more independent than it was at previous stages of social development. Therefore, as units of society that should be analyzed, Bell proposes situses - the basic types of professional fields of activity. Situs are vertical units of society, and they do not enter into a relationship of superiority-subordination with each other. Bell identifies two groups of situs: institutional and functional. Institutional situses build a hierarchy of professional occupations and types of professional elites, functional situses determine the type of professionalism of an individual. Bell distinguishes four functional situs - scientific, technical, which includes all applied professions, including economics and medicine, administrative and cultural. In addition, there are five institutional situs - economic enterprises, government agencies, universities and research centers, social complexes and the army. The division of post-industrial society into situses is necessary for Bell to show that conflicts in modern society arise between different units of society than it was in industrial society.

Concluding the analysis of Bell's book, let us dwell on two more features of the post-industrial society, which are briefly mentioned in his work. First, if in an industrial society a person experienced a shortage of goods, now there is a shortage of time and information. Success is achieved by those who know how to plan their time and have access to more sources of information. Secondly, in a post-industrial society, a person can climb the social ladder and enjoy the respect of others, regardless of what class he belongs to by birth. His position in society is determined by personal achievements.

A quarter of a century since The Coming Post-Industrial Society, Bell remains an authoritative thinker who continues to be cited in all studies describing the post-industrial and information society. The fact that the book has not become outdated for such a long period of time confirms that the great American sociologist Daniel Bell, in his experience of social forecasting, was able to predict the vector of social development.