Types of society traditional industrial post-industrial table. Typology of societies

Today, an industrial society is a concept familiar in all developed and even many developing countries of the world. The process of transition to mechanical production, the decline in the profitability of agriculture, the growth of cities and a clear division of labor - all these are the main features of the process that is changing the socio-economic structure of the state.

What is an industrial society?

In addition to production characteristics, this society is different high level life, the formation of civil rights and freedoms, the emergence of service activities, accessible information and humane economic relations. Previous traditional socio-economic models were distinguished by a relatively low average standard of living for the population.

The industrial society is considered modern, both technical and social components are developing very quickly in it, affecting the improvement of the quality of life in general.

Main differences

The main difference between a traditional agrarian society and a modern one is the growth of industry, the need for a modernized, accelerated and efficient production and division of labor.

The main reasons for the division of labor and in-line production can be considered both economic - the financial benefits of mechanization, and social - population growth and increased demand for goods.

Industrial society is characterized not only by the growth of industrial production, but also by the systematization and flow of agricultural activities. In addition, in any country and in any society, the process of industrial reconstruction is accompanied by the development of science, technology, means mass media and civil liability.

Changing the structure of society

Today, many developing countries are characterized by a particularly accelerated process transition from a traditional society to an industrial one. The process of globalization and free information space play a significant role in changing socio-economic structures. New technologies and scientific advances are making it possible to improve production processes, which makes a number of industries especially efficient.

processes of globalization and international cooperation and regulations also influence the change of social statutes. An industrial society is characterized by a completely different worldview, when the expansion of rights and freedoms is perceived not as a concession, but as something due. In combination, such changes allow the state to become part of the world market both from an economic point of view and from a socio-political point of view.

The main features and signs of an industrial society

The main characteristics can be divided into three groups: production, economic and social.

The main production features and signs of an industrial society are as follows:

  • mechanization of production;
  • reorganization of labor;
  • division of labor;
  • productivity increase.

Among the economic characteristics it is necessary to highlight:

  • growing influence of private production;
  • the emergence of a market for competitive products;
  • expansion of sales markets.

The main economic feature of an industrial society is uneven economic development. Crisis, inflation, decline in production - all these are frequent phenomena in the economy of an industrial state. The Industrial Revolution is by no means a guarantee of stability.

The main feature of an industrial society in terms of its social development- change in values ​​and worldview, which is affected by:

  • development and accessibility of education;
  • improving the quality of life;
  • popularization of culture and art;
  • urbanization;
  • expansion of human rights and freedoms.

It is worth noting that industrial society is also characterized by reckless exploitation natural resources, including irreplaceable ones, and almost complete disregard for the environment.

Historical background

In addition to economic benefits and population growth, the industrial development of society was due to a number of other reasons. In traditional states, most people were able to secure their livelihood, and nothing more. Only a few could afford comfort, education and pleasure. The agrarian society was forced to move to an agrarian-industrial one. This transition allowed for an increase in production. However, the agrarian-industrial society was characterized by the inhumane attitude of the owners towards the workers and low level mechanization of production.

Pre-industrial socio-economic models rested on various forms of the slave system, which indicated the absence of universal freedoms and the low average standard of living of the population.

Industrial Revolution

The transition to an industrial society began in the period industrial revolution. It was this period, the 18th-19th centuries, that was responsible for the transition from manual to mechanized labor. The beginning and middle of the 19th century became the apogee of industrialization in a number of leading world powers.

During the industrial revolution, the main features of the modern state took shape, such as the growth of production, urbanization, economic growth and the capitalist model of social development.

Usually, the industrial revolution is associated with the growth of machine production and intensive technological development, but it was during this period that the main socio-political changes took place that influenced the formation of a new society.

Industrialization

There are three main sectors in the composition of both the world and the state economy:

  • Primary - resource extraction and agriculture.
  • Secondary - processing resources and creating food.
  • Tertiary - the service sector.

Traditional social structures were based on the superiority of the primary sector. Subsequently, in transition period, the secondary sector began to catch up with the primary, and the service sector began to grow. Industrialization is the expansion of the secondary sector of the economy.

This process took place in world history in two stages: a technical revolution, including the creation of mechanized factories and the abandonment of manufactory, and the modernization of devices - the invention of the conveyor, electrical appliances and engines.

Urbanization

In the modern sense, urbanization is an increase in the population of large cities due to migration from rural areas. However, the transition to an industrial society was characterized by a broader interpretation of the concept.

Cities became not only places of work and migration of the population, but also cultural and economic centers. It was the cities that became the boundary of the true division of labor - territorial.

Future of industrial society

Today at developed countries there is a transition from a modern industrial society to a post-industrial one. There is a change in the values ​​and criteria of human capital.

The engine of the post-industrial society and its economy should be the knowledge industry. Therefore, scientific discoveries and technological developments new generation play a big role in many states. Professionals with a high level of education, good learning ability, and creative thinking. The dominant sector of the traditional economy will be the tertiary sector, that is, the service sector.

Sociology distinguishes several types of society: traditional, industrial and post-industrial. The difference between the formations is enormous. Moreover, each type of device has unique characteristics and features.

The difference lies in the attitude towards the person, ways of organizing economic activity. The transition from traditional to industrial and post-industrial (information) society is extremely difficult.

Traditional

The presented type of social system was formed first. In this case, the regulation of relationships between people is based on tradition. An agrarian society, or traditional, differs from industrial and post-industrial ones primarily by low mobility in social sphere. In such a way, there is a clear distribution of roles, and the transition from one class to another is almost impossible. An example is the caste system in India. The structure of this society is characterized by stability and a low level of development. The basis of the future role of a person is, first of all, his origin. Social elevators are absent in principle, in some way they are even undesirable. The transition of individuals from one layer to another in the hierarchy can provoke the process of destruction of the entire habitual way of life.

In an agrarian society, individualism is not welcome. All human actions are aimed at maintaining the life of the community. Freedom of choice in this case can lead to a change in formation or cause the destruction of the entire structure. Economic relations between people are strictly regulated. Under normal market relations, there is an increase in citizens, that is, processes that are undesirable for the entire traditional society are initiated.

Basis of the economy

The economy of this type of formation is agrarian. That is, the land is the basis of wealth. The more allotments an individual owns, the higher his social status. The tools of production are archaic and practically do not develop. This also applies to other areas of life. In the early stages of the formation of a traditional society, natural exchange prevails. Money as a universal commodity and a measure of the value of other items are absent in principle.

There is no industrial production as such. With the development, handicraft production of the necessary tools and other household items arises. This process is long, as most of the citizens living in traditional society prefer to do everything themselves. Subsistence farming predominates.

Demography and life

In an agrarian system, most people live in local communities. At the same time, the change of place of business is extremely slow and painful. It is also important to take into account the fact that at a new place of residence, problems often arise with the allocation of a land allotment. Own plot with the opportunity to grow different crops is the basis of life in a traditional society. Food is also obtained through cattle breeding, gathering and hunting.

In a traditional society, the birth rate is high. This is primarily due to the need for the survival of the community itself. There is no medicine, so often simple diseases and injuries become fatal. Average life expectancy is low.

Life is organized according to the foundations. It is also not subject to any changes. At the same time, the life of all members of society depends on religion. All canons and foundations in the community are regulated by faith. Changes and an attempt to escape from habitual existence are suppressed by religious dogmas.

Change of formation

The transition from a traditional society to an industrial and post-industrial one is only possible with a sharp development of technology. This became possible in the 17th and 18th centuries. In many ways, the development of progress was due to the plague epidemic that swept Europe. A sharp decline in population provoked the development of technology, the emergence of mechanized tools of production.

industrial formation

Sociologists associate the transition from the traditional type of society to industrial and post-industrial ones with a change in the economic component of the way people live. Growth production capacity led to urbanization, that is, the outflow of part of the population from the village to the city. Large settlements were formed, in which the mobility of citizens increased significantly.

The structure of the formation is flexible and dynamic. Machine production is actively developing, labor is automated higher. The use of new (at that time) technologies is typical not only for industry, but also for agriculture. The total share of employment in the agricultural sector does not exceed 10%.

The main factor of development in an industrial society is entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, the position of the individual is determined by his skills and abilities, the desire for development and education. The origin also remains important, but gradually its influence decreases.

Form of government

Gradually, with the growth of production and the increase of capital in an industrial society, a conflict is brewing between a generation of entrepreneurs and representatives of the old aristocracy. In many countries this process has culminated in a change in the very structure of the state. Typical examples include the French Revolution or the emergence of a constitutional monarchy in England. After these changes, the archaic aristocracy lost its former opportunities to influence the life of the state (although in general they continued to listen to their opinion).

Economics of an industrial society

The economy of such a formation is based on the extensive exploitation of natural resources and work force. According to Marx, in a capitalist industrial society, the main roles are assigned directly to those who own the tools of labor. Resources are often developed to the detriment of the environment, the state of the environment is deteriorating.

At the same time, production is growing at an accelerated pace. The quality of the staff comes first. Manual labor also persists, but to minimize costs, industrialists and entrepreneurs are beginning to invest in technology development.

A characteristic feature of the industrial formation is the fusion of banking and industrial capital. In an agrarian society, especially in its early stages development, usury was pursued. With the development of progress, interest on loans became the basis for the development of the economy.

post-industrial

Post-industrial society began to take shape in the middle of the last century. The countries of Western Europe, the USA and Japan became the locomotive of development. The features of the formation are to increase the share in the gross domestic product information technologies. Transformations also affected industry and agriculture. Productivity increased, manual labor decreased.

locomotive further development was the formation of a consumer society. The increase in the share of quality services and goods has led to the development of technology, increased investment in science.

The concept of post-industrial society was formed by the teacher Harvard University After his work, some sociologists also brought out the concept of the information society, although in many ways these concepts are synonymous.

Opinions

There are two opinions in the theory of the emergence of a post-industrial society. From a classical point of view, the transition was made possible by:

  1. Production automation.
  2. The need for a high educational level of staff.
  3. Increasing demand for quality services.
  4. Increasing the incomes of the majority of the population of developed countries.

Marxists put forward their own theory on this matter. According to it, the transition to a post-industrial (information) society from industrial and traditional became possible due to the global division of labor. There was a concentration of industries in different regions of the planet, as a result of which the qualifications of service personnel increased.

Deindustrialization

The information society has given rise to another socio-economic process: deindustrialization. In developed countries, the share of workers involved in industry is declining. At the same time, the influence of direct production on the economy of the state also falls. According to statistics, from 1970 to 2015, the share of industry in the US and Western Europe in the gross domestic product decreased from 40% to 28%. Part of the production was transferred to other regions of the planet. This process gave rise to a sharp increase in development in the countries, accelerated the pace of transition from the agrarian (traditional) and industrial types of society to the post-industrial one.

Risks

The intensive path of development and the formation of an economy based on scientific knowledge is fraught with different risks. The migration process has grown sharply. At the same time, some lagging countries are beginning to experience a shortage of qualified personnel who move to regions with information type economy. The effect provokes the development of crisis phenomena characteristic of more for the industrial social formation.

Demographic skew is also causing concern among experts. Three stages of the development of society (traditional, industrial and post-industrial) have different attitudes towards the family and fertility. For an agrarian formation, a large family is the basis of survival. Approximately the same opinion exists in industrial society. The transition to a new formation was marked sharp decline fertility and population aging. Therefore, countries with an information economy are actively attracting qualified, educated youth from other regions of the planet, thereby increasing the development gap.

Experts are also concerned about the decline in the growth rates of post-industrial society. The traditional (agrarian) and industrial sectors still have room to develop, increase production and change the format of the economy. The information formation is the crown of the process of evolution. New technologies are constantly being developed, but breakthrough solutions (for example, the transition to nuclear power, space exploration) occur less and less frequently. Therefore, sociologists predict an increase in crisis phenomena.

Coexistence

Now there is a paradoxical situation: industrial, post-industrial and traditional societies coexist quite peacefully in different regions of the planet. An agrarian formation with an appropriate way of life is more typical for some countries in Africa and Asia. Industrial with gradual evolutionary processes to information is observed in Eastern Europe and the CIS.

Industrial, post-industrial and traditional society are different primarily in relation to the human personality. In the first two cases, development is based on individualism, while in the second, collective principles predominate. Any manifestation of willfulness and an attempt to stand out are condemned.

Social elevators

Social lifts characterize the mobility of the population within society. In traditional, industrial and post-industrial formations they are expressed differently. For an agrarian society, only the displacement of an entire stratum of the population is possible, for example, through a revolt or revolution. In other cases, mobility is possible even for one individual. The final position depends on the knowledge, acquired skills and activity of a person.

In fact, the differences between traditional, industrial and post-industrial types of society are enormous. Sociologists and philosophers study their formation and stages of development.

Society typology

Modern societies differ in many ways, but they also have the same parameters by which they can be typified.

One of the main directions in the typology of society is the choice of political relations, forms state power as grounds for distinguishing different types of society. For example, in Plato and Aristotle, societies differ in type state structure Keywords: monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy. In modern versions of this approach, there is a separation of totalitarian (the state determines all the main directions social life); democratic (the population can influence state structures) and authoritarian (combining elements of totalitarianism and democracy) societies.

Marxism based the typology of society on the distinction between societies according to the type of production relations in various socio-economic formations: primitive communal society (primitively appropriating the mode of production); societies with the Asian mode of production (the presence special kind collective ownership of land); slave-owning societies (ownership of people and the use of slave labor); feudal (exploitation of peasants attached to the land); communist or socialist societies ( equal treatment all to ownership of the means of production by eliminating private property relations).

Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies

The most stable in modern sociology is the typology based on the allocation of traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies.

A traditional society (it is also called simple and agrarian) is a society with an agrarian way of life, sedentary structures and a method of sociocultural regulation based on traditions (traditional society). The behavior of individuals in it is strictly controlled, regulated by the customs and norms of traditional behavior, established social institutions, among which the family and community will be the most important. Attempts of any social transformations, innovations are rejected. It is characterized by low rates of development and production. Important for this type of society is a well-established social solidarity, which was established by Durkheim, studying the society of the Australian Aborigines.

The traditional society is characterized by a natural division and specialization of labor (mainly by gender and age), personalization interpersonal communication(directly individuals, and not officials or status persons), informal regulation of interactions (norms of unwritten laws of religion and morality), connectedness of members by kinship relations (family type of organization of the community), a primitive system of community management (hereditary power, rule of elders).

Modern societies are distinguished by the following features: the role-based nature of interaction (expectations and behavior of people are determined by social status and social functions individuals); the developing deep division of labor (on a professional and qualification basis related to education and work experience); a formal system of regulation of relations (based on written law: laws, regulations, contracts, etc.); complex system social management (singling out the institution of management, special governing bodies: political, economic, territorial and self-government); secularization of religion (separation of it from the system of government); the allocation of many social institutions (self-reproducing systems special relationship allowing to ensure social control, inequality, protection of its members, distribution of benefits, production, communication).

These include industrial and post-industrial societies.

An industrial society is a type of organization of social life that combines the freedom and interests of the individual with general principles governing their joint activities. It is characterized by the flexibility of social structures, social mobility, and a developed system of communications.

In the 1960s the concepts of a post-industrial (information) society appear (D. Bell, A. Touraine, J. Habermas), caused by drastic changes in the economy and culture of the most developed countries. The role of knowledge and information, computer and automatic devices is recognized as leading in society. An individual who has received the necessary education, who has access to latest information, gets advantageous chances of moving up the stairs social hierarchy. Creative work becomes the main goal of a person in society.

The negative side of the post-industrial society is the danger of increased social control by the state, the ruling elite through access to information and electronic media and communication over people and society as a whole.

The life world of human society is increasingly subject to the logic of efficiency and instrumentalism. culture, including traditional values, is destroyed under the influence of administrative control, gravitating towards standardization and unification social relations, social behavior. Society is increasingly subject to the logic of economic life and bureaucratic thinking.

Distinctive features of a post-industrial society:

  • - the transition from the production of goods to the economy of services;
  • - the rise and dominance of highly educated vocational specialists;
  • - the main role theoretical knowledge as a source of discoveries and political decisions in society;
  • - control over technology and the ability to assess the consequences of scientific and technological innovations;
  • - decision-making based on the creation of intellectual technology, as well as using the so-called information technology.

The latter was brought to life by the needs of the information society that began to take shape. The emergence of such a phenomenon is by no means accidental. The basis of social dynamics in the information society is not traditional material resources, which are also largely exhausted, but information (intellectual): knowledge, scientific, organizational factors, intellectual abilities of people, their initiative, creativity.

The concept of post-industrialism has been developed in detail today, it has a lot of supporters and an ever-increasing number of opponents. In the world, two main directions for assessing the future development of human society have been formed: eco-pessimism and techno-optimism. Ecopessimism predicts a total global catastrophe in 2030 due to increasing environmental pollution; destruction of the Earth's biosphere. Techno-optimism paints a more rosy picture, assuming that scientific and technological progress will cope with all the difficulties in the development of society.

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Typology of societies: Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies

AT modern world exist Various types societies that differ from each other in many ways, both explicit (language of communication, culture, geographical position, size, etc.), and hidden (the degree of social integration, the level of stability, etc.). scientific classification involves the selection of the most significant, typical features that distinguish some features from others and unite societies of the same group.
Typology(from the Greek tupoc - imprint, form, sample and logoc - word, teaching) - a method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the division of systems of objects and their grouping using a generalized, idealized model or type.
In the middle of the 19th century, K. Marx proposed a typology of societies, which was based on the method of production of material goods and production relations - primarily property relations. He divided all societies into 5 main types (according to the type of socio-economic formations): primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist (the initial phase is a socialist society).
Another typology divides all societies into simple and complex. The criterion is the number of management levels and the degree of social differentiation (stratification).
A simple society is a society in which the components are homogeneous, there are no rich and poor, leaders and subordinates, the structure and functions here are poorly differentiated and can be easily interchanged. These are primitive tribes, which are still preserved in some places.
A complex society is a society with highly differentiated structures and functions that are interconnected and interdependent on each other, which necessitates their coordination.
K. Popper distinguishes between two types of societies: closed and open. The differences between them are based on a number of factors, and, above all, the relationship of social control and freedom of the individual.
For closed society characterized by a static social structure, limited mobility, resistance to innovation, traditionalism, dogmatic authoritarian ideology, collectivism. To this type of society, K. Popper attributed Sparta, Prussia, Tsarist Russia, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union Stalin era.
An open society is characterized by a dynamic social structure, high mobility, ability to innovate, criticism, individualism and democratic pluralistic ideology. K. Popper considered ancient Athens and modern Western democracies to be examples of open societies.
Modern sociology uses all typologies, combining them into some kind of synthetic model. Its creator is considered a prominent American sociologist Daniela Bella (b. 1919). He subdivided world history three stages: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. When one stage replaces another, technology changes, the mode of production, the form of ownership, social institutions, political regime, culture, lifestyle, population, social structure of society.
Traditional (pre-industrial) society- a society with an agrarian way of life, with a predominance of subsistence farming, a class hierarchy, sedentary structures and a method of socio-cultural regulation based on tradition. It is characterized by manual labor, extremely low rates of development of production, which can satisfy the needs of people only at a minimal level. It is extremely inertial, therefore it is not very susceptible to innovations. The behavior of individuals in such a society is regulated by customs, norms, and social institutions. Customs, norms, institutions, consecrated by traditions, are considered unshakable, not allowing even the thought of changing them. Performing their integrative function, culture and social institutions suppress any manifestation of individual freedom, which is a necessary condition for the gradual renewal of society.
industrial society- The term industrial society was introduced by A. Saint-Simon, emphasizing its new technical basis.
In modern terms, this is a complex society, with an industrial-based way of managing, with flexible, dynamic and modifiable structures, a way of socio-cultural regulation based on a combination of individual freedom and the interests of society. These societies are characterized by a developed division of labor, the development of mass media, urbanization, etc.
post-industrial society- (sometimes called informational) - a society developed on an information basis: extraction (in traditional societies) and processing (in industrial societies) of natural products are replaced by the acquisition and processing of information, as well as predominant development (instead of agriculture in traditional societies and industry in industrial) service sector. As a result, the structure of employment and the ratio of various professional and qualification groups are also changing. According to forecasts, already at the beginning of the 21st century in advanced countries, half of the workforce will be employed in the field of information, a quarter in the field of material production and a quarter in the production of services, including information.
The change in the technological basis also affects the organization of the entire system of social ties and relations. If in an industrial society the mass class was made up of workers, then in a post-industrial society it was employees and managers. At the same time, the significance of class differentiation is weakening, instead of a status (“granular”) social structure, a functional (“ready-made”) social structure is being formed. Instead of leading the principle of governance, coordination is becoming, and representative democracy is being replaced by direct democracy and self-government. As a result, instead of a hierarchy of structures, a new type a network organization focused on rapid change depending on the situation.

Traditional society (pre-industrial) is the longest of the three stages, with a history of thousands of years. Most of the history of mankind has been spent in a traditional society. This is a society with an agrarian way of life, little dynamic social structures and a method of socio-cultural regulation based on tradition. In a traditional society, the main producer is not man, but nature. Subsistence farming predominates - the absolute majority of the population (over 90%) is employed in agriculture; simple technologies are used, and therefore the division of labor is simple. This society is characterized by inertia, low perception of innovations. If we use Marxist terminology, traditional society is a primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal society.

industrial society

Industrial society is characterized by machine production, national system business, free market. This type of society arose relatively recently - starting from the 18th century, as a result of the industrial revolution, which first swept England and Holland, and then the rest of the world. In Ukraine, the industrial revolution began around the middle of the 19th century. The essence of the industrial revolution is the transition from manual to machine production, from manufactory to factory. New sources of energy are being mastered: if earlier mankind used mainly the energy of muscles, less often water and wind, then with the beginning of the industrial revolution they begin to use steam energy, and later diesel engines, internal combustion engines, and electricity. In an industrial society, the task that was the main thing for a traditional society - to feed people and provide them with the things necessary for life - has receded into the background. Now only 5-10% of people employed in agriculture produce enough food for the whole society.

Industrialization leads to increased growth of cities, the national liberal-democratic state is strengthened, industry, education, and the service sector are developing. New specialized social statuses appear ("worker", "engineer", "railroad worker", etc.), class partitions disappear - no longer noble origin or family ties are the basis for determining a person in the social hierarchy, but her personal actions. In a traditional society, a nobleman, having become poor, remained a nobleman, and a rich merchant was still the face of the "ignoble". In an industrial society, everyone wins his status by personal merits - a capitalist, went bankrupt, is no longer a capitalist, and yesterday's shoe shiner can become the owner of a large company and occupy a high position in society. Social mobility is growing, there is an equalization of human capabilities, due to the universal accessibility of education.

In an industrial society, the complication of the system of social ties leads to the formalization of human relations, which in most cases become depersonalized. A modern city dweller communicates with more people in a week than his distant rural ancestor in his entire life. Therefore, people communicate through their role and status “masks”: not as a specific individual with a specific individual, each of which is endowed with certain individual human qualities, but as a Teacher and a student, or a Policeman and a Pedestrian, or a Director and an Employee (“I am speaking to you as a specialist .. "," It's not customary with us ... "," the professor said ... "").

post-industrial society

Post-industrial society (the term was proposed by Daniell. Bell in 1962.). At one time, D. Bell headed the "Commission of the Year 2000", created by the decision of the US Congress. The task of this commission was to work out forecasts of the socio-economic development of the United States in the third millennium. Based on the research conducted by the commission, Daniel Bell, together with other authors, wrote the book "America in 2000". In this book, in particular, it was necessary that behind the industrial society comes new stage human history, which will be based on the achievements of scientific and technological progress. Daniel Bell called this stage "post-industrial".

In the second half of the XX century. in the most developed countries of the world, such as the United States, Western Europe, Japan, the importance of knowledge and information is growing sharply. The dynamics of updating information has become so high that already in the 70s. 20th century Sociologists have concluded (as time has shown - correct) that in the XXI century. illiterate can be considered not those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, forget the unnecessary, and learn again.

In connection with the growing weight of knowledge and information, science is turning into a direct productive force societies - the progressive countries receive an ever-increasing part of their income not from the sale of industrial products, but from trade in new technologies and science-intensive and information products (for example: movies, television programs, computer programs, etc.). In a post-industrial society, the entire spiritual superstructure is integrated into the production system and - thereby - the dualism of the material and the ideal is overcome. If the industrial society was economically centric, then the post-industrial society is characterized by cultural centricity: the role of the "human factor" and the entire system of socio-humanitarian knowledge directed at it is growing. This, of course, does not mean that the post-industrial society denies the basic components of the industrial society (highly developed industry, labor discipline, highly qualified personnel). As Daniel Bell noted, "the post-industrial society does not replace the industrial one, just as the industrial society does not eliminate the agricultural sector of the economy." But a person in a post-industrial society already ceases to be an "economic man". New, "post-materialistic" values ​​become dominant for her (Table 4.1).

The first “entry into the public arena” of a person for whom “post-materialistic values” are a priority is considered (G. Marcuse, S. Ayerman) a youth riot in the late 60s of the XX century, which declared the death of the Protestant work ethic as a moral one. foundations of Western industrial civilization.

Table 4.1. Comparison of industrial and post-industrial society

Scientists fruitfully worked on the development of the concept of a post-industrial society: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Alvin Toffler, Aron, Kennep Boulding, Walt Rostow and others. True, some of them used their own terms to name a new type of society that is replacing the industrial one. Kenneth Boulding calls it "post-civilization". Zbigniew Brzezinski prefers the term "technotronic society", thereby emphasizing the crucial importance of electronics and communications in the new society. Alvin Toffler calls it a "super-industrial society", referring to a complex mobile society based on highly advanced technology and a post-materialist value system.

Alvin Toffler in 1970 He wrote: “The inhabitants of the Earth are divided not only along racial, ideological or religious lines, but also, in a certain sense, and in time. modern population planet, we find a small group of people who still live by hunting and fishing. Others, most of them, rely on agriculture. They live in much the same way as their ancestors lived hundreds of years ago. These two groups together make up about 70% of the world's population. These are the people of the past.

Over 25% of the population the globe live in industrialized countries. They live modern life. They are a product of the first half of the 20th century. shaped by mechanization and mass education, brought up on memories of the agro-industrial past of their country. They are modern people.

The remaining 2-3% of the world's population cannot be called either people of the past or modern people. Because in the main centers of technological and cultural change, in New York, London, Tokyo, millions of people can be said to live in the future. These pioneers, without realizing it, live the way others will live tomorrow. They are the scouts of humanity, the first citizens of a super-industrial society."

We can add to Toffler in only one thing: today, almost 40 years later, more than 40% of humanity lives in a society that he called superindustrial.

The transition from industrial to post-industrial society is determined by the following factors:

change in the economic sphere: the transition from an economy focused on commodity production to an economy focused on the service and information sector. Moreover, we are talking first of all about highly qualified services, such as the development and general accessibility of banking services, the development of mass media and the general availability of information, health care, education, social care, and only secondarily - services provided to individual clients. In the mid 90s. 20th century in the field of production and in the field of service and provision information services was, respectively, employed: in the US - 25% and 70% of the working population; in Germany - 40% and 55%; in Japan - 36% and 60%); what is more - even in production area in countries with a post-industrial economy, representatives of intellectual labor, production organizers, technical intelligentsia and administrative personnel account for about 60% of all employees;

change in social structure society (professional division is replacing class division). For example, Daniel Bell believes that the capitalist class is disappearing in a post-industrial society, and a new ruling elite, which has a high level of education and knowledge, takes its place;

the central place of theoretical knowledge in determining the main vectors of the development of society. The main conflict, then, in this society lies not between labor and capital, but between knowledge and incompetence. The importance of higher education institutions is growing: the university has entered industrial enterprise, the main institution of the industrial age. graduate School has at least two main tasks in the new conditions: to create theories, knowledge, which become the main factor social change and also educate advisers and experts;

creation of new intellectual technologies (among others, for example, genetic engineering, cloning, new agricultural technologies, etc.).

Control questions and tasks

1. Define the term "society" and describe its main features.

2. Why is society considered a self-reproducing system?

3. How does the system-mechanical approach to understanding society differ from the system-organic one?

4. Describe the essence of the synthetic approach to understanding society.

5. What is the difference between the traditional community and modern society(terms of F. Tjonnies)?

6. Describe the main theories of the origin of society.

7. What is "anomie"? Describe the main features of this state of society.

8. How does R. Merton's anomie theory differ from E. Durkheim's anomie theory?

9. Explain the difference between the concepts " social progress and "social evolution".

10. What is the difference between social reform and revolution? Do you know the types of social revolutions?

11. Name the criteria of the typology of societies known to you.

12. Describe the Marxist concept of the typology of societies.

13. Compare traditional and industrial societies.

14. Describe the post-industrial society.

15. Compare post-industrial and industrial societies.