Post-industrial society

Daniel Bell popularized the term through his 1974 work The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. Although some have credited Bell with coining the term, French sociologist Alain Touraine published in 1969 the first major work on the post-industrial society. The term was also used extensively by social philosopher Ivan Illich in his 1973 paper Tools for Conviviality and appears occasionally in Leftist texts throughout the mid-to-late 1960s. The term has grown and changed as it became mainstream. The term is now used by marketers such as Seth Godin, public policy PhDs such as Keith Boeckelman, and sociologists such as Neil Fligstein and Ofer Sharone. U.S. President Bill Clinton used the term to describe Chinese growth in a round-table discussion in Shanghai in 1998. ==Valuation of knowledge==

The post-industrialized society is marked by an increased valuation of knowledge. This has been foreshadowed in Daniel Bell's presumption as to how economic employment patterns will evolve in such societies. He asserts employment will grow faster in the tertiary (and quaternary) sector relative to employment in the primary and secondary sector and that the tertiary (and quaternary) sectors will take precedence in the economy. This will continue to occur such that the "impact of the expert" will expand and power will be monopolized by knowledge. As tertiary and quaternary sector positions are essentially knowledge-oriented, this will result in a restructuring of education, at least in its nuances. The "new power… of the expert" consequently gives rise to the growing role of universities and research institutes in post-industrial societies. The increasing importance of knowledge in post-industrial societies results in a general increase in expertise through the economy and throughout society. In this manner, it eliminates what Alan Banks and Jim Foster identify as "undesirable work as well as the grosser forms of poverty and inequality". This effect is supplemented by the aforementioned movement of power into the hands of young educated people concerned with social justice. The valuation of specifically scientific knowledge and technology can paradoxically be devalued by individuals in a post-industrial society as they still expect its benefits but are more sensitized to moral trade-offs and risks. ==Creativity culture==

Similarly, post-industrial society has serviced the creative culture. Many of those most well-equipped to thrive in an increasingly technological society are young adults with tertiary education. As education itself becomes more and more oriented towards producing people capable of answering the need for self-actualization, creativity, and self-expression, successive generations become more endowed with the ability to contribute to and perpetuate such industries. This change in education, as well among the emerging class of young professionals, is initiated by what James D Wright identifies as an "unprecedented economic affluence and the satiation of basic material needs". The post-industrial society is stressed to be one where knowledge is power and technology is the instrument. This increased faculty of the post-industrialist society with respects to the creative industry is reflected by the economic history of post-industrial societies. As economic activities shift from primarily primary and secondary sector-based to tertiary, and later quaternary, sector-based, cities in which this shift occurs become more open to exchanges of information. This is necessitated by the demands of a tertiary and quaternary sector: in order to better service an industry focused on finance, education, communication, management, training, engineering, and aesthetic design, the city must become points of exchange capable of providing the most updated information from across the globe. Conversely, as cities become a convergence of international ideas, the tertiary and quaternary sector can be expected to grow. ==Criticism==

Post-industrialism is criticized for the amount of real fundamental change it produces in society, if any at all. A mild view held by Alan Banks and Jim Foster contends that representations of post-industrial society by advocates assume professional, educated elites were previously less relevant than they have become in the new social order, and that changes that have occurred are minor but greatly embellished. In line with the view that nothing fundamental has changed in the transition from industrial societies to post-industrial societies is the insistence of lingering problems from past development periods. Neo-Malthusian in essence, this outlook focuses on post-industrial society's continuing struggle with issues of resource scarcity, overpopulation, and environmental degradation, all of which are remnants from its industrial history. This is exacerbated by a "corporate liberalism" that seeks to continue economic growth through "the creation and satisfaction of false needs", or as Christopher Lasch more derisively refers to it, "subsidized waste". One of the word's early users, Ivan Illich, prefigured this criticism and invented the term Conviviality, or the Convivial Society, to stand as a positive description of his version of a post-industrial society. Social critique A group of scholars (including Allen Scott and Edward Soja) argue that industry remains at the center of the whole process of capitalist accumulation, with services not only becoming increasingly industrialized and automated but also remaining highly dependent on industrial growth. Some observers, including Soja (building on the theories of the French philosopher of urbanism Henri Lefebvre), suggest that although industry may be based outside of a "post-industrial" nation, that nation cannot ignore industry's necessary sociological importance. Further concerns can be raised regarding the difference in mindset and objectives between those in an industrial society, and those in a post-industrial one. For instance, if the industrial society (producing the raw materials and goods consumed by its peer) were for some reason to cut off supply to the post-industrial nation, there would be little recourse for the latter to ensure that supply chains were not disrupted. Since the society based on ideas would have diminished real product output, the industrial society would be in a position to dictate terms to its counterpart. The response from the "more advanced" nation might be eventually effective or damaging, however it would be hard pressed to bridge the gap until domestic industry could makeup for the lack of imported manufactured goods. ==See also==