The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting

612 Pages·1999·4.43 MB·English

by  Daniel Bell

Praise for
The Coming of Post-Industrial Society

“It is rare in social science to find a study that fundamentally changes our
perception of the way the world works. Daniel Bell’s The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society accomplished such a feat. First published in 1973, it was an
instant classic. Bell’s highly informative and engaging new introduction makes
this powerful work even more compelling.”
—William Fulius Wilson
Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor,
Harvard University (1999)
“A quarter century ago, Dan Bell was prescient when he published his classic on
post-industrial society. With this brilliant new foreword he remains ahead in
linking his past insights to the new information age.”
—Foseph S. Nye, Fr.
Dean of the Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University (1999)
“Daniel Bell introduced the concept of post-industrial technology in the first
edition of this work, and it has now become universal. His additional essay
brings together in a short compass both a sharp characterization of the special
features of the new technology which has developed so much in the interim, yet
along lines he already foresaw, and deeply insightful comments on the social
effects that it permits but does not determine.”
—Kenneth F. Arrow
Joan Kennedy Professor of Economics Emeritus,
Stanford University; Nobe] Laureate in Economics (1999)
“One of the great seminal works of the last half century and also portending the
changes in the next half century.”
—Manuel Castells (1999)
“A book that could affect thinking for years to come. ... It is a book to be read by
all Americans who want to know what the year 2000 has in store for us.”
—Arnold Bekhmtm
Christian Science Monitor (1973)

“Bell elaborates ... with learning and ingenuity. Even more admirably, he is free
of slushy romanticism about the future.”
—Maron F. Levy, Fr.
Fortune (1973)
THE COMING
OF
POST-INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETY
THE COMING
OF
POST-INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETY

A Venture in Social
Forecasting

DANIEL BELL

A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Copyright © 1973 by Daniel Bell
Foreword © 1976 by Daniel Bell
Foreword 1999 © 1999 by Daniel Bell Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United
States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books,
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-89178
ISBN 0-465-01281-7 cloth
0-465-09713-8 pbk.
DESIGNED BY VINCENT TORRE
00 01 02 20 19 18 17 16
FOR

Jordy Bell Jacoby

AND

Stephen Jacoby
CONTENTS

The Axial Age of Technology Foreword: 1999

Foreword: 1976

Preface

Introduction

CHAPTER
1

From Industrial to Post-Industrial Society:
Theories of Social Development

CHAPTER
2

From Goods to Services: The Changing
Shape of the Economy

CHAPTER
3

The Dimensions of Knowledge and
Technology: The New Class Structure of
Post-Industrial Society

CHAPTER
4
The Subordination of the Corporation: The
Tension between the Economizing and
Sociologizing Modes

CHAPTER
5

Social Choice and Social Planning: The
dequacy of Our Concepts and Tools

CHAPTER
6

“Who Will Rule?” Politicians and
Technocrats in the Post-Industrial Society

CODA

An Agenda for the Future

1. How Social Systems Change
2. The Future of Science
3. Meritocracy and Equality
4. The End of Scarcity?
5. Culture and Consciousness
Name Index

Subject Index
THE AXIAL AGE OF
TECHNOLOGY
FOREWORD: 1999

The Coming of PostIndustrial Society was first published in 1973 and re-issued
with an expanded foreword in 1976. Since then, the term, the phrase, the idea,
the concept of postindustrial society has passed into common currency and the
academic lexicon. A search in the Nexis database from August 6, 1997 to
August 8, 1998, reveals 104 citations in articles and speeches by many different
persons. In the two-year period beginning in 1996, there were 191 instances.
The range is revealing, sometimes amusing, and sometimes astounding. Sir
Leon Brittan, Vice-President of the European Commission, speaking in Tokyo in
September 1997, remarked, “We are managing a difficult transition to becoming
postindustrial societies with aging populations.” William Julius Wilson, the
Harvard sociologist, writing in January 1998 on the reasons behind inner-city
dislocations, pointed to the “postindustrial society” occupational positions that
require higher levels of education. The Unabomber, the man responsible for the
death or maiming of more than a dozen persons over a dozen-year period, in
January 1998 offered to end his war “if a national newspaper published his
35,000-word manifesto criticizing the corrupt and dehumanizing influences of
postindustrial [i.e., technological] society.” When the New York Times and
Washington Post jointly published the manuscript, David Kaczynski, the brother
of the Unabomber, recognized the style and words and informed the authorities
of his identity.
What is striking is the high-level and often-minatory use of the phrase by
world leaders. Celebrating the 650th anniversary of Prague University in April
1998, President Václav Havel remarked: “University research must not be driven
solely ... by die demands of the market economy; postindustrial society demands
that universities recall their original concept of ‘general learning.’” In June 1998,
speaking of the flaws in Asian societies, Margaret Thatcher laid part of the
blame on “the failure to develop the political framework and skills needed in
advanced industrial and postindustrial societies.”