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

Daniel Bell (Author, Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465097138 | ISBN-13: 978-0465097135 | Publication Date: July 21, 1976 | Edition: 1st Printing

In 1976, Daniel Bell’s historical work predicted a vastly different society developing—one that will rely on the “economics of information” rather than the “economics of goods.” Bell argued that the new society would not displace the older one but rather overlie some of the previous layers just as the industrial society did not completely eradicate the agrarian sectors of our society. The post-industrial society’s dimensions would include the spread of a knowledge class, the change from goods to services and the role of women. All of these would be dependent on the expansion of services in the economic sector and an increasing dependence on science as the means of innovating and organizing technological change.Bell prophetically stated in The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society that we should expect “… new premises and new powers, new constraints and new questions—with the difference that these are now on a scale that had never been previously imagined in world history.”

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Daniel Bell is the Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University and Scholar-in-Residence at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of editor of 17 books, two of which, The End of Ideology and The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, were listed among the 100 Most Influential Books since the Second World War (TLS, October 1995).

Product Details

• Paperback: 616 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st Printing edition (July 21, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465097138
• ISBN-13: 978-0465097135
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Venture In Social Forecasting, April 23, 2002

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Simon Shedden (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting (Paperback)

The Coming of the Post Industrial Society; A Venture in Social Forecasting by Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is a renowned sociologist and post-Marxist, his prophetic book was first published in 1976 and republished in 1999 accompanied with a new foreword by the author. Since 1976 many of the concepts, theories and phrases Bell pioneered have become naturalised, universal conventions, and thus Bell should, most definitely, be considered a futurist.

This definitive book explores the `coming age' and evaluates how this new Post Industrial Society will alter the structure of society. As Bell openly concedes `the sociologist is always tempted to play the prophet and if not the prophet the seer' (Chapter 1). He does, however, explain that the `forecasting' he attempts is different from predicting. For, forecasting is only possible where there are `regularities and recurrences of phenomenon (and these are rare). It is only possible where one can assume a high degree of rationality on the part of the man who influences events-agreement to follow the rules'. And it seems that Bell's sociological background has given him the required understanding.

The new foreword shows considerable contemplation of the books success. Bell explains how there has been an unprecedented increase in the use of the phrase `post industrial society' but he is not complacent, rather he underlines the lack of `specificity as to what is connotes'. He describes how the general usage of the phrase, which is often used in reference to the decline in manufacturing and industry, does not acknowledge the parallel changes in social structure, social organisation and the new classes that will be, and have been created, specifically the class of knowledge (this theme is further explored in chapter 3, entitled The New Class Structure of the Post Industrial Society).[ Bell adamantly argues that his vision of the Post Industrial Society does not see the old one displaced by the new, rather a synthesis emerges in which the new society will overlay the old one in profound ways, much as industrialisation continues to coexist within the agrarian sectors of our society.] Thus it seems that Bell does not merely use the new foreword to hail his work a success but to redress, the misunderstood, misinterpreted or inadequately adopted parts of his social forecast.

Bell explains how it is inadequate to define the new society primarily by the services but he does see the productive nature of them. While society naturally embraces the three distinctions of industry as primary, secondary and tertiary in the new foreword Bell makes further distinctions by suggesting `quaternary' (covering trade and finance) and `quinary' (health and education), these are the involved in the economics of information not goods or labour. And thus it seems that while Bell has pioneered he wants to pioneer further. He further states that the central and novel feature of the Post Industrial Society is the `codification of theoretical knowledge and new relation of science to technology'. Major developments of the 20th century came from revolutions in physics and biology as opposed to the `inspired and talented tinkerers' like Alexander Graham Bell. This suggests the increasing dependence on science as a means of technical and social change, and science is wholly dependent on knowledge and information.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The signpost pointing toward the future, September 12, 2010

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Winston Smith 6076 "winstonsmith6076" (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting (Paperback)

This tome covers most socials and cultural aspects of a society in the throws of post industrialism. Interestingly, this text contains many of the social aspects we see today; society breaking into groups and disputing with other groups, extreme individualization, breakdown of civility, and disillusionment. While point forward, however, this work does not include elements of the knowledge society, in fact, I would postulate that this work only looks at post-industrialism and not toward knowledge-based societies. For what is does discuss and predict, it is quite accurate and probably.

5.0 out of 5 stars excelent, June 11, 2011

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isabel b. de izquierdo (MIAMI, FL, US) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting (Paperback)

The book is what I expected and the author explains all about post industry time in a very intelligent way. I needed it for my college studies and I found a reliable information.