TY - JOUR
T1 - The new post-industrial state
AU - Miles, Ian
N1 - Funding Information:
Ian Miles is Senior Research Fellow, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Mantel1 Building, Falmer, Brighton BNl 9RF, UK, and is a member of the advisory editorial board of Fulurcs. This article is a version of a paper presented to the 3rd European Symposium on Long-Term Futures Studies, at Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, Zurich, June 1985, and was prepared as acontribution to a project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust, for whose support the author is extremely grateful. Thanks are also given to the author’s colleagues at SPRU for many ideas discussed here (although they may disagree with the use made of them!) and for comments on this article: in particular Albert Cherns, Chris Freeman, Jay Gershuny, Dan Jones and Sally Wyatt. This is very much a piece of work in progress, intended as a first step towards an extensive report provisionally entitled ‘Work in an Information Society’.
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1985/12
Y1 - 1985/12
N2 - With the socioeconomic restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s, the idea of a smooth transition to a post-industrial service economy has required significant revision. We outline three such revisions: the ideas of informatization, informalization, and dualism. The first two are reworkings of post-industrial theory so as to emphasize one or other undervalued trend in industrial society, and are in principle quite compatible. The third emphasizes inequalities in power and resources that are plausibly associated with developments seen as benign by the others. Each has distinct implications for democratic development. However, we argue that while elements of all three models are present in current trends, so that the future might be best seen as a compromise between them, in fact all approaches fail to grasp the real significance of socioeconomic and technological restructuring. A more fruitful approach, with distinctive policy implications, is proposed.
AB - With the socioeconomic restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s, the idea of a smooth transition to a post-industrial service economy has required significant revision. We outline three such revisions: the ideas of informatization, informalization, and dualism. The first two are reworkings of post-industrial theory so as to emphasize one or other undervalued trend in industrial society, and are in principle quite compatible. The third emphasizes inequalities in power and resources that are plausibly associated with developments seen as benign by the others. Each has distinct implications for democratic development. However, we argue that while elements of all three models are present in current trends, so that the future might be best seen as a compromise between them, in fact all approaches fail to grasp the real significance of socioeconomic and technological restructuring. A more fruitful approach, with distinctive policy implications, is proposed.
KW - dualism
KW - future research
KW - informal economy
KW - information technology
KW - service economy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34247834825&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0016-3287(85)90015-1
DO - 10.1016/0016-3287(85)90015-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34247834825
SN - 0016-3287
VL - 17
SP - 588
EP - 617
JO - Futures
JF - Futures
IS - 6
ER -
