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Post-industrial society: its history and characteristics

Post-industrial society: its history and characteristics

March 27, 2024

Among many other things, the social sciences have offered us different ways of naming and studying the history of Western societies. Currently, we have different concepts that refer to the transformations in production relations, economic changes, technological production, and so on.

One of these concepts is the Post-Industrial Society , which refers to the transformations that the social organization established after the industrial revolution has had. Next we explain what is and where the Post-industrial Society comes from, as well as 5 of its main characteristics.

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From the Industrial Revolution to the Post-Industrial Society

The reason why it has been called Post-industrial Society is to refer to the time and the transition process of a society that was established based on the consequences of the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century (the Industrial Society), to the company that has been established based on the production of this new technology.


The type of society that had been generated before the Industrial Revolution is known as the Pre-industrial Society. Among other things, this society was organized by primary relations (face to face), rural lifestyles, agricultural production, an economic system of feudal government and slavery, among other things.

From the Industrial Revolution, the work organization was transformed towards the primacy of mass production , where each person is part of a large manufacturing system. Technological innovation has an important boom, based on the cost-benefit logic. With this, labor relations also become wage and dependent on the market.


Subsequently the Post-industrial Society emerges, mainly from the technological revolution, the transformation of global geopolitics, economic interdependence on a global scale, the relations between economy, state and society, where the state regulates markets, generates global competition, and it stops being a welfare state, and finally, an internal restructuring of capitalism (Castell, 1997 in Sisto, 2009).

These transformations have been explained through many other concepts. We have, for example, the knowledge society, the information society, the technocratic era, among others. The multiplicity of terms responds to the need to understand the different ways in which our societies have developed.

For example, if we use the term "society of knowledge" surely it is because we pay special attention to the ways in which the latter occurs, and if we talk about Post-industrial Society we will put more emphasis on the production relationships that are established .


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5 characteristics of the Post-industrial Society

The concept of post-industrial society emerged in the 70's and has been worked by different people. Daniel Bell is recognized as one of the first to use and develop the term, especially from his book The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society of 1973.

Among other things Bell described 5 dimensions that are characteristic of the Post-industrial Society and that establish important differences with industrial societies: the labor force sector, the preference of the occupational sector, the pre-eminence of theoretical knowledge and the production of both mechanical technology as an intellectual.

1. Where is the work force?

According to Bell, unlike agricultural societies and industrial societies, postindustrial societies have the characteristic that the workforce is concentrated in the service delivery sector (health, education, government).

In the words of Bell (1976), the industrial society is distinguished from the previous ones by a major change in the economic sector: there is a shift from the commodity-producing economy to the service-producing economy.

2. Who is the labor sector going to?

The consequence of this is explained by Bell as another characteristic that distinguishes postindustrial societies: the labor sector is practically reserved for people who have technical and professional training (specialized)

That is, the occupational distribution maintains a preference for professional and technical classes.

3. The primacy of theoretical knowledge

In order to train technicians and professionals, the construction and transmission of theoretical knowledge is fundamental.The postindustrial society has the characteristic of giving primacy to the production of this type of knowledge, not only to impact the occupational sector, but also with regard to the political management of societies .

Bell (1976) calls this an "axial principle", referring to the centrality of theoretical knowledge as a source of political innovation.

4. Generate mechanical technology

The main resource to offer a solution to the problems postindustrial society faces is the development of technology. Not only develop technology but also control its distribution and regulation.

In other words, the postindustrial society maintains the expectations of development and its orientation towards the future in the production of technological projects.

5. Generate intellectual technology

Related to the previous point and with the primacy of theoretical knowledge, the postindustrial society constantly generates solutions based on ordered and finite sets of operations, that is, in the production of algorithms, on the most intuitive resolutions, which in other societies had more presence.

This creation of intellectual technology is also a new way of making decisions at a political level.

Bibliographic references:

  • Bell, D. (1976). The advent of the Post-industrial Society. Editorial Alliance: Spain.
  • Seoane, J. (1988). Post-industrial society and forms of political participation. Psychology Bulletin [Electronic Version] Retrieved June 5, 2018. Available at //www.uv.es/seoane/publicaciones/Seoane%201989%20Sociedad%20postinductrial%20y%20formas%20de%20participacion%20politica.pdf.
  • Sisto, V. (2009). Changes in work, identity and social inclusion in Chile: Challenges for research. Revista Universum, 24 (2): 192-216.

What is POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY? What does POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY mean? (March 2024).


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