Postindustrial Society

The term postindustrial society has been used in a variety of contexts and senses, but it reached prominence only in the 1970s. The most significant text on the subject, providing a substantial analysis with a weight of background data and conceptualization, was Daniel Bell's The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, published in 1973. This was the culmination of a substantial body of work, not least that conducted for major U.S. commissions—the National Commission on Technology, Automation and American Progress (1964–1966; exploring the implications of automation for employment), and the Presidential Commission on the Year 2000 (1966–1968). The term postindustrial society signified a fundamental shift in the socioeconomic ordering of affluent societies, undermining the traditional relationship between work (production) and identity and thus opening new avenues for ...