Economic and Socio-cultural Changes at the Edge of Eras: Post-industrial Society

Abstract

The article offers an analysis of the most famous scientific works of the 20th century (such as, С. Clark, J. Fourastié, D. Bell, T. Roszak, H.-M. McLuhan, T. Stonier, R. Katz, F. Webster, Z. Brzezinski, A. Toffler, A. Toynbee, J. Baudrillard, J.-F. Lyotard, etc.), related to the study of the key concepts of the information age, its objective foundations of development, which formed the main scientific, sociopolitical currents of the last century, opened perspectives for the development of modern political thought and possible ways of forming society in the 21st century. What happened at the end (or rather in the second half) of the 20th century, forcing even conservative skeptics to recognize the end of a long era of industrial development? The reasons for these processes, as shown by social and socio-political processes, must be sought in the economy. In addition to the primary and secondary sectors of the economy, there has always been a tertiary sector related to the sphere of services. In the second half of the 20th century thanks to the development of technology, the importance of the tertiary, service sector of the economy began to grow steadily, which marked the end of the era of industrial society and the beginning of a new, post-industrial history. The consequence of this was the emergence of new forms of culture and the transformation of social relations. The concepts of “post-industrial society,” “information society,” and “information age” are often mentioned in journalistic texts of the mass media and scientific publications. However, if you set yourself the goal of understanding what a post-industrial society or the information revolution is, it will not be so easy. Different authors often put their own meaning into these concepts, thus turning their texts into what is called in psychoanalysis a flow of free associations. The intention to make certain corrections to the concept of “post-industrial society,” to outline the main trends and features of the postmodern era, and explore the potential consequences of its influence on various spheres of life of modern civilization, became the reason for the creation of this article.