Post industrial and information society - Essay Example

College The two concepts of post industrial and information society are closely evident in the current society. The activities and developments experienced in the society today are as a result of features of post industrial and information society. The transition from manufacturing industry to service sector and putting more emphasis in education in the current society can be described as an information and post industrial society. Information technology is currently employed in the service sector and in communication (Harvey, 1990, p.4). This can describe the present society as post industrial and information technology oriented. A number of countries around the globe are going through a period of information change as a result of post industrial society effects. The features of both post industrial and information societies describe well the current or the present society. But the concept of information society best describes the present society. This is because the present society is majorly characterized with the rapid change in information technology, use of information technology in provision of services and the use of information technology to improve communication from the traditional modes of communication. The post industrial society which emphasizes on education to improve the quality of life for humans makes use of information technology to achieve this goal. The post industrial and information societies are share close features. The current world can be described as a joint post industrial and information society. The transition from manufacturing production to service industry is largely aided by the development of information technology. This is part of information society. A post industrial society is a society whereby there is an occurrence of economic transition from manufacturing or industrial based production to a more emphasis on a service based economy. This is through dissemination of global and national capital and mass privatization. The process of industrialization and libelization are the fundamental perquisites for the emergency of post industrial society. The transition of the economy in this manner has restructured the society in general (Lyon, 1999, p. 6). The post industrial society considers knowledge value as a type of capital. It is characterized by the rise of professionalism and scientists in special areas, and the transition from production of goods to service industry. The information society is a society which involves the establishment, sharing, diffusion, utilization and information manipulation as an important economic, cultural and political activity. Through the economic exploitation of comprehension, wealth is established. Information technology is the prime factor and central to the role of economic production to the society. The present society can be described as an information society in that; it highly embraces the use of information technology in a productive and creative way. The knowledge economy is a counterpart to information society in terms of economy. It involves the creation of wealth by exploitation of understanding economically (Webster, 2006, p. 3). The features which have been experienced in the current society indicate that humans are in a new era of society. The present information society is characterized by information consciousness, advancement of the information sector, empowering information, using information as part of an economic resource, and development of an information industry. Information sector is developed in order to contain the need of information services and facilities by the society. Countries are developing their information sectors in order to keep with the pace of rapidly changing information market internationally. The information sector of several countries is facilitated with telecommunication networks and computers as part of their technological infrastructure (May, 2002, p. 5). To compare the two concepts of post industrial and information societies, there is a transition of the society from a primarily based manufacturing or a production based economy to an economy which is based predominantly with application of information technology and communication services. The post industrial society and information society forges a new relationship between science and new technologies. As a result, there is a need to have and create more technical learning institutions such as universities. The institutions have embarked in training and production of experts with the sole motif of creating and guiding the new and rapidly changing technologies. The mode of communication has dramatically changed from the traditional modes to the implementation of new technologies (Webster, 2006, p.17). A number of countries today are in the post industrial society. They include Canada, United States and Japan. The post industrial society came around in the late20 century. It was characterized by large production of information, consumption of services by the society. This was mostly in technologically advanced nations where services and information were consumed instead of goods. According to Bell (2006) the post industrial society is an innovative society derived from theoretical knowledge. Also, the basis of policy formation in post industrial society is theoretical knowledge. In a number of nations, post industrial society is characterized by industrial or manufacturing sector producing less wealth as compared to the service sector. The majority of the people in this society are involved in the provision of non tangible goods while the minorities who are unskilled are less predominant. The post industrial society is a transition which concentrates on services provision rather than production of goods. This employs the use of information technology. The society is described as to create intangible business environment which proof to be more well-known posing a swift decline in the manufacturing sector. This is evident in a number of countries. High technology and information services dominate post industrial society more than manufacturing or industrial production of goods. Developed nations are shifting from manufacturing and industrial production towards service sectors which is increasing rapidly. Education, health, sales, research, government and banking are some of the examples of service sectors. The industrial society used transportation as the major infrastructure, but the present post industrial society, the infrastructure in use is communication (May, 2002, p.22). The post industrial society values knowledge as a form of capital. The society upholds and appreciates the value of knowledge as an asset for technological advancement. To make life better, the post industrial society counts on knowledge to sustain and improve the lives of the society. The valuing or production of knowledge could be part of the basic policies of post-industrial society. The valuing and production of knowledge is for the purpose of delivering growth in the society’s economy. There is a change in the character of knowledge as theoretical knowledge is more emphasized rather than empirical. Innovation and growth is as a result of theoretical knowledge under a theory of knowledge value (Bell and Kennedy, 2006, p.17). The present post industrial society emphasizes on a labor value theory. This involves a substitution of capital labor and development of production proceeds by labor-saving strategies. As a result, institutions of higher learning such as colleges and universities will acquire status to be prestigious and central institutions. This will be based in the academic and scientific communities. In this concept under post industrial, the source of innovation and invention is based on knowledge. Knowledge is described to be establishing value-added and boosting returns to scale. It is mostly a capital-saving concept (Harvey, 1990, p.24). The occupational changes experienced presently characterize the post industrial society and the information society. The astonishing increase of professional and technical or scientific services and the comparative decrease in semi-skilled and skilled labor is the major substantial effect in the post industrial society. The post industrial society professional workers are characterized by the growth in significance and prevalence. A significant decline in the importance and worth of manual labor characterizes the post industrial society. The white collar personnel have taken over the value of the blue collar personnel. The decline is because of the emergency of aspects such as automation and globalization (Webster, 2006,p.18). The white collar workers include information technology professionals, scientists and creative-industry experts. The blue collar workers are those in the assembly-line work. In the post industrial society, the development and implementation of behavioral economics takes place. Also, new technologies and development of information sciences takes place. There has been a radical reduction of the gap between the early forces of transition and their applications. The society is characterized by individuals seeking to expect a transition, estimate its directions course and effects, be in charge of it and form it according to its predetermined ends. In this particular society, the main overriding factor of competence for a position and place is having the relevant technical skills in that particular field. A new definition of social rights gives arises in which individuals guarantee equality and other rights on their community. Our present society is experiencing a rapid expansion in education and primary. The two factors make up the human services. The post industrial society today demonstrates an increase in production in our society today. This is evident in that there is acquirement of skills, specifically numeracy and literacy, reducing illness by improving health and having more fit personnel in work. Presently, education is the foundation for one to keep up to date with the rapidly changing world. Individuals need education to cope with the increase in technical and professional jobs. The inheritance of property which characterized the traditional mode of acquiring wealth and privilege is now gone (Bell and Kennedy, 2006, p.35). Our present society regards human capital as a crucial feature in building and strengthening the society. This one of the main features if the post industrial society. In the past like four decades or so ago, capital was the principal financial capital contained as land or money. But more recently, human capital is measured to the extent of one’s ability to access opportunities and network socially. This is a major shift from the industrial society to the present post industrial society. The evident of the present information society can be seen with the innovation of information technologies. The internet and mobile communication dominate the lives of human today. They have enabled information society to develop at a rapid rate. The economies of the developed nations are in transition from industry to information. Knowledge based skilled are required for one to be employed in this economy. This is a similar case with the post industrial society. Areas such as training, education, programming, computer literacy and legal skills are emphasized on. The currency used is information which is in form of individual data (Webster et al, 2004, p.14). The information society is characterized by the availability of communication and computing infrastructure. Presently, this has changed the mode of working. There has been a transition from the traditional mode of working which basically revolved being in the office, to remote working from home. With the introduction and rapid growth of information technology, the present society has experienced more openness in the society, improved and easier communication, open governments due to media freedom, and equality and human rights (May, 2002, p.36). In the theory of information society, the concept of network society gained significance. According to Castells (2000), information, flexibility, pervasiveness and convergence are besides network logic and are at the center of information technology paradigm. The use of the network society explains the features of information society today. The diffusion of networking logic into our information society has greatly changed the action and result in production, experience and culture processes. Castells (2000) also argues that the spread of information technology is because of the increase of a networked society which is a recent paradigm in technology. Castells also links the concept of transforming capital to a networked society (Castells, 2000, p.11). The concepts of post industrial and information societies have however received criticism. Scholars have argued that they have made the society to believe that we have moved into a full new kind of society. The two concepts have spread discontinuity such that the current society does not sharing anything in mutual with the society in 100 or so years ago. They also don’t give a proper direction or point of reference to accommodate the changes in the society in future. They are based on ideological assumption that we can adapt to change and can’t do anything to it. Critics add that the present society is capitalized and concentrating in amassing political, economic and cultural capital (Bell and Kennedy, 2006, p.23). The important new society qualities, globalization and information technology do not demonstrate the overall capitalist structures. Post industrial society and an information society are two concepts which the present society is experiencing. The society is advancing from the traditional methods of working, education, communication and professionalism. The post industrial society has put more emphasis on education and provision of intangible services which in turn is facilitated by the development of information society. The two concepts are intertwined together and can be used to adequately address the nature of the present society. References. BELL, D and KENNEDY, B (eds.) (2006), The Cybercultures Reader, 2nd ed., London, Routledge CASTELLS, M. (2000), The rise of the network society: rise of the network society. Oxford, Blackwell. HARVEY, D (1990), The condition of postmodernity: an enquiry into the origins of cultural change, Oxford [England], Blackwell. LYON, D (1999), Postmodernity, Buckingham, Open University Press. MAY, C (2002), The information society: a skeptical view, Malden, Mass, Polity Press. WEBSTER, F (2006), Theories of the information society, London, Routledge. WEBSTER et al (eds.) (2004), The Information Society Reader, London, Routledge Read More