The relative predominance of the share of services over material production does not necessarily mean a decrease in output. Just these volumes in the post industrial society increase more slowly than the volume of services provided.

Services should be understood not only as trade, public utilities and consumer services: any infrastructure is created and maintained by society to provide services: the state, the army, law, finance, transport, communications, healthcare, education, science, culture, the Internet - these are all services. The service industry includes the production and sale of software. The buyer does not own all rights to the program. He uses its copy on certain conditions, that is, he receives a service.

Close to the post-industrial theory are the concepts of the information society, post-economic society, postmodern, "third wave", "society of the fourth formation", "scientific-information stage of the production principle". Some futurologists believe that post-industrialism is only a prologue to the transition to the "post-human" phase of the development of earthly civilization.

The term "post-industrialism" was introduced into scientific circulation at the beginning of the 20th century by the scientist A. Kumaraswamy, who specialized in the pre-industrial development of Asian countries. In the modern sense, this term was first used in the late 1950s, and the concept of a post-industrial society received wide recognition as a result of the work of Harvard University professor Daniel Bell, in particular, after the publication of his book The Coming Post-Industrial Society in 1973.

The concept of post-industrial society is based on the division of all social development into three stages:

• Agrarian (pre-industrial) - the agricultural sector was decisive, the main structures were the church, the army
• Industrial - industry was the determining factor, the main structures were corporations, firms
• Post-industrial - theoretical knowledge is decisive, the main structure is the university, as a place of their production and accumulation

Formation of the concept of post-industrial society

Reasons for the emergence of a post-industrial economy

It should be noted that among researchers there is no single point of view on the causes of the emergence of a post-industrial society.

Developers of post-industrial theory give the following reasons:

The decrease in the share of people employed in industry, characteristic of post-industrial countries, does not indicate a decline in the development of industrial production. Against, industrial production, like Agriculture in post-industrial countries, they are extremely highly developed, including due to the high degree of division of labor, which ensures high productivity. Further increase in employment in this area is simply not required. For example, in the United States, about 5% of the employed population has long worked in agriculture. At the same time, the United States is one of the world's largest grain exporters. At the same time, more than 15% of US workers are employed in the sectors of transportation, processing and storage of agricultural products. The division of labor made this work "non-agricultural" - this was done by the service sector and industry, which additionally increased their share in GDP by reducing the share of agriculture. At the same time, there was no such detailed specialization of economic entities in the USSR. Agricultural enterprises were engaged not only in cultivation, but also in the storage, transportation, and primary processing of the crop. It turned out that from 25 to 40% of workers worked in the village. At a time when the proportion of the rural population was 40%, the USSR provided itself with all the grain (and other agricultural products, such as meat, milk, eggs, etc.), but when the share of the agricultural population decreased to 25% (by the end of 1960 1970s), there was a need for food imports, and finally, with a decrease in this share to 20% (by the end of the 1970s), the USSR became the largest grain importer.

In the post-industrial economy, the greatest contribution to the cost of material goods that are produced within this economy is made by the final component of production - trade, advertising, marketing, that is, the service sector, as well as the information component in the form of patents, R&D, etc.

In addition, the production of information is playing an increasingly important role. This sector is more cost-effective than material production, since it is enough to make an initial sample, and the cost of copying is negligible. But it cannot exist without:

1. Developed legal protection of intellectual property rights. It is no coincidence that it is the post-industrial countries that defend these issues to the greatest extent.
2. The rights to information that are subject to legal protection should be of a monopoly nature. This is not only a necessary condition for turning information into a commodity, but also allows you to extract monopoly profits, increasing the profitability of the post-industrial economy.
3. The presence of a huge number of information consumers who benefit from its productive use and who are ready to offer "non-informational" goods for it.

Features of the investment process

The industrial economy was based on the accumulation of investments (in the form of savings of the population or through the activities of the state) and their subsequent investment in production capacities. In the post-industrial economy, the concentration of capital through monetary savings drops sharply (for example, in the United States, the volume of savings is less than the volume of debts of the population). According to Marxists, the main source of capital is the ownership of intangible assets, expressed in the form of licenses, patents, corporate or debt securities, including foreign ones. According to modern ideas of some Western scientists economics, the main source of financial resources is the company's market capitalization, which is formed on the basis of investors' assessment of the effectiveness of business organization, intellectual property, the ability to successfully innovate, and others. intangible assets, in particular, customer loyalty, employee qualifications, etc.

The main production resource - the qualifications of people - cannot be increased through the growth of investment in production. This can only be achieved through increased investment in people and increased consumption - including the consumption of educational services, investment in human health, etc. In addition, the growth of consumption allows you to meet the basic needs of a person, as a result of which people have time for personal growth , the development of creative abilities, etc., that is, those qualities that are most important for the post-industrial economy.

Today, when implementing large projects, significant funds are necessarily provided not only for construction and equipment, but also for staff training, their constant retraining, training, and the provision of a range of social services (medical and pension insurance, recreation, education for family members).

One of the features of the investment process in post-industrial countries has become the ownership of significant foreign assets by their companies and citizens. In accordance with the modern Marxist interpretation, if the amount of such property is greater than the amount of property of foreigners in a given country, this allows, through the redistribution of profits created in other regions, to increase consumption in individual countries even more than their domestic production grows. According to other directions economic thought, consumption is growing most rapidly in those countries where foreign investment, and in the post-industrial sector, profit is formed mainly as a result of intellectual and managerial activities.

In a post-industrial society, a new type of investment business- venture. Its essence lies in the fact that many developments and promising projects are financed at the same time, and the super-profitability of a small number of successful projects covers the losses of the rest.

The prevalence of knowledge over capital

In the early stages of an industrial society, having capital, it was almost always possible to organize the mass production of any product and occupy a corresponding niche in the market. With the development of competition, especially international, the amount of capital does not guarantee protection against failure and bankruptcy. Innovation is essential to success. Capital cannot automatically provide the know-how needed for economic success. And vice versa, in the post-industrial sectors of the economy, the presence of know-how makes it easy to attract the necessary capital, even without having your own.

Technological changes

Technological progress in an industrial society was achieved mainly due to the work of practical inventors, who often had no scientific training (for example, T. Edison). In a post-industrial society, the applied role of scientific research, including fundamental research, is sharply increasing. The main driver of technological change was the introduction of scientific achievements into production.

In a post-industrial society, science-intensive, resource-saving and information technologies (“high technologies”) are most developed. These are, in particular, microelectronics, software, telecommunications, robotics, the production of materials with predetermined properties, biotechnology, etc. Informatization permeates all spheres of society: not only the production of goods and services, but also the household, as well as culture and art.

The theorists of the post-industrial society include the replacement of mechanical interactions with electronic technologies among the features of modern scientific and technological progress; miniaturization, penetrating into all spheres of production; change in biological organisms at the genetic level.

The main trend of changing technological processes is the increase in automation, the gradual replacement of unskilled labor with the work of machines and computers.

social structure

An important feature of post-industrial society is the strengthening of the role and importance of the human factor. The structure of labor resources is changing: the share of physical labor is decreasing and the share of highly qualified and creative mental labor is growing. The costs of training the workforce are increasing: the costs of training and education, advanced training and retraining of workers.

According to V. L. Inozemtsev, a leading Russian specialist in the post-industrial society, about 70% of the entire workforce is employed in the “knowledge economy” in the United States.

"class of professionals"

A number of researchers characterize the post-industrial society as a "society of professionals", where the main class is the "class of intellectuals", and the power belongs to the meritocracy - the intellectual elite. As the founder of post-industrialism D. Bell wrote, “ post-industrial society… involves the emergence of an intellectual class whose representatives at the political level act as consultants, experts or technocrats» . At the same time, the tendencies of “property stratification on the basis of education” are already clearly manifesting themselves.

According to the famous economist P. Drucker, ““knowledge workers” will not become the majority in the “knowledge society”, but ... they have already become its leading class”.

To designate this new intellectual class, E. Toffler introduces the term "cognitariat", for the first time in the book "Metamorphoses of Power" (1990).

…Purely physical labor is at the bottom of the spectrum and is slowly disappearing. With few manual laborers in the economy, the "proletariat" is now in the minority and is being replaced more by the "cognitariat". As the super-symbolic economy develops, the proletarian becomes a cognitarist.

Change in the status of wage labor

In a post-industrial society, the main "means of production" is the qualifications of employees. In this sense, the means of production belong to the worker himself, so the value of employees to the company increases dramatically. As a result, the relationship between the company and knowledge workers becomes more partnership, and dependence on the employer is sharply reduced. At the same time, corporations are moving from a centralized hierarchical to a hierarchical-network structure with an increase in the independence of employees.

Gradually, in companies, not only workers, but also all management functions, up to the very top management, begin to be performed by hired employees, who often do not own the companies.

Strengthening the importance of creativity and reducing the role of unskilled labor

According to some researchers (in particular, V. Inozemtsev), a post-industrial society is moving into a post-economic phase, since in the future it overcomes the dominance of the economy (production of material goods) over people and the development of human abilities becomes the main form of life. Already now in developed countries Oh material motivation partly gives way to self-expression in activity.

On the other hand, the post-industrial economy is experiencing less and less need for unskilled labor, which creates difficulties for the population with a low educational level. For the first time in history, a situation arises when population growth (in its unskilled part) reduces, rather than increases, the economic power of the country.

Historical periodization

According to the concept of post-industrial society, the history of civilization is divided into three major eras: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. In the transition from one stage to another, a new type of society does not supplant the previous forms, but makes them secondary.

The pre-industrial way of organizing society is based on

• labor intensive technologies
• use of human muscle power,
• skills that do not require long-term training,
• exploitation of natural resources (in particular, agricultural land).

The industrial method is based on

• machine production,
• capital intensive technologies
• use of extramuscular energy sources,
• qualifications that require long-term training.

The post-industrial method is based on

• science-intensive technologies,
• information and knowledge as the main production resource,
• creative aspect of human activity, continuous self-improvement and advanced training throughout life.

The basis of power in the pre-industrial era was the land and the number of dependent people, in the industrial era - capital and energy sources, in the post-industrial era - knowledge, technology and the qualifications of people.

The weakness of post-industrial theory is that it considers the transition from one stage to another as an objective (and even inevitable) process, but little analyzes the social conditions necessary for this, the accompanying contradictions, cultural factors, etc.

Post-industrial theory operates mainly with terms characteristic of sociology and economics. The corresponding "culturological analogue" was called the concept of postmodernity (according to which historical development proceeds from traditional society to modern and further to postmodernism).

Place of post-industrial societies in the world

The development of a post-industrial society in the most developed countries of the world has led to the fact that the share of the manufacturing industry in the GDP of these countries is currently much lower than that of a number of developing countries. Thus, this share in the US GDP in 2007 was 13.4%, in France's GDP - 12.5%, in the UK's GDP - 12.4%, while in China's GDP - 32.9%, in Thailand's GDP - 35.6%, in Indonesian GDP - 27.8%.

By moving commodity production to other countries, post-industrial states (mostly former metropolises) are forced to put up with the inevitable increase in the necessary qualifications and some well-being of the labor force in their former colonies and controlled territories. If in the industrial era, from the beginning of the 19th century until the 80s of the 20th century, the gap in GDP per capita between backward and developed countries increased more and more, then the post-industrial phase of economic development slowed down this trend, which is a consequence of the globalization of the economy and the growth of education population of developing countries. Related to this are demographic and sociocultural processes, as a result of which, by the 1990s, most Third World countries achieved a certain increase in literacy, which stimulated consumption and caused a slowdown in population growth. As a result of these processes, in recent years in most developing countries, GDP per capita growth rates are significantly higher than in most economically developed countries, but given the extremely low starting position of developing economies, their consumption gap with post-industrial countries cannot be overcome. in foreseeable future .

It should be borne in mind that international commodity deliveries often go within the framework of one transnational corporation that controls enterprises in developing countries. Economists of the Marxist school believe that the main part of the profit is distributed disproportionately to the total labor invested through the country where the corporation's board is located, including with the help of an artificially hypertrophied share based on ownership rights to licenses and technologies - at the expense and to the detriment of direct producers of goods and services (in particular, software, an increasing amount of which is being developed in countries with low social and consumer standards). According to other economists, the bulk of value added is actually created in the country where the head office is located, as there are developments, new technologies are created and relationships with consumers are formed. Special consideration requires the practice of recent decades, when both headquarters and financial assets Most of the most powerful TNCs are located in territories with preferential taxation, but where there are neither production, nor marketing, nor, especially, research divisions of these companies.

As a result of the relative decline in the share of material production, the economies of post-industrial countries have become less dependent on the supply of raw materials. For example, the unprecedented rise in oil prices in 2004-2007 did not trigger a crisis like the oil crises of the 1970s. A similar rise in prices for raw materials in the 1970s forced a reduction in the level of production and consumption, primarily in the advanced countries.

The globalization of the world economy has allowed post-industrial countries to shift the costs of the next global crisis onto developing countries - suppliers of raw materials and labor: according to V. Inozemtsev, “the post-industrial world is entering the 21st century quite an autonomous social entity that controls the global production of technologies and complex high-tech goods self-sufficient in industrial and agricultural products, relatively independent of the supply of energy and raw materials, and self-sufficient in terms of trade and investment.”

According to other researchers, the success of the economies of post-industrial countries observed until recently is a short-term effect, achieved mainly due to unequal exchange and unequal relations between a few developed countries and vast regions of the planet, which provided them with cheap labor and raw materials, and the forced stimulation of information industries and the financial sector of the economy (disproportionate to material production) was one of the main reasons for the onset of the global economic crisis of 2008.

Criticism of the theory of post-industrial society

Critics of the theory of post-industrial society point to the fact that the expectations of the creators of this concept did not come true. For example, D. Bell, who stated that “the main class in the emerging society is, first of all, a class of professionals who own knowledge” and that the center of society should shift from corporations towards universities, research centers, etc. In reality, corporations , contrary to Bell's expectations, remained the center of the Western economy and only consolidated their power over the scientific institutions, among which they were supposed to dissolve.

Attention is drawn to the fact that corporations often profit not from information as such, but from the image of the product offered to the market. The share of people employed in marketing and advertising business is growing, the share of advertising costs in the budget of commodity producers is growing. Japanese researcher Kenishi Ohmae described this process as "the main paradigm shift of the last decade". Observing how in Japan agricultural products of famous brands are sold at prices several times higher than the prices of no-name products of the same kind and quality, that is, “without a brand” (from little-known producers), he came to the conclusion that the added value is the result of a well-directed effort to create a brand. A skillful simulation of technological progress becomes possible, when modifications that do not affect the functional properties of a thing and do not require real labor costs, in the virtual reality of advertising images, look like a "revolution", a "new word". A similar approach is outlined in the book No Logo by Naomi Klein.

The head of the analytical department of the treasury of Sberbank, Nikolai Kashcheev, stated: “The American middle class created primarily by material production. The service sector brings Americans less income than material production, at least it did, of course, with the exception of the financial sector. The stratification is caused by the so-called mythical post-industrial society, its triumph, when at the top there is a small group of people with special talents and abilities, expensive education, while the middle class is completely washed out, because a huge mass of people leave material production for the service sector and receive less money". He concluded: “And yet Americans are aware that they must industrialize again. These seditious words, after this long-term myth about a post-industrial society, begin to be spoken openly by economists, who are still mostly independent. They say that there should be productive assets in which to invest. But there is nothing like it on the horizon yet.”

[ by whom?] that the theory of post-industrialism served to enrich the corporations that profited from the transfer of the real sector to the Third World, and became an excuse for an unprecedented inflation of the financial speculation sector, which was presented as the "development of the service sector." [ non-authoritative source?]

Notes

1. Post-industrial society // Dictionary of social sciences. Glossary.ru
2. K. Ruhl. Structure and Growth: Growth Without Employment (2000 data)
3. Convergence of the ideologies of post-industrialism and the information society
4. D. Bell. The coming post-industrial society. M., Academy, 1999. ISBN 5-87444-070-4
5. Post-industrial society // Great Soviet Encyclopedia
6. V. Inozemtsev. Modern post-industrial society: nature, contradictions, prospects. Introduction. M.: Logos, 2000.
7. V. Inozemtsev. Science, personality and society in post-industrial reality
8. V. Inozemtsev. Outside the economic society. Post-industrial theories and post-economic trends in the modern world. M.: "Academia" - "Science", 1998. In particular, in chapter 3: “The consequence of this global historical transition is the displacement of man from the sphere of directly material production”. “There is a modification of social values ​​and a change in motivation human activity, as a result of which the question of the attitude towards the means of production, so important in traditional societies, loses its former significance.
9. Social geography of the modern world
10. Bureau of Labor Statistics. US Employment Report for the current period. (eng.) Indicators of the employed population are given (eng. Employment) and non-agricultural employment (eng. non-farm employment). To determine the percentage of employment in agriculture, you need (1 - Nonfarm employment / Employment) * 100
11. Chernyakov B. A. The role and place of the largest agricultural enterprises in the US agrarian sector // Economics of agricultural and processing enterprises. - 2001. - N 5.
12. See M. Porter's statement
13. V. Inozemtsev's book “The Broken Civilization. Prerequisites and Possible Consequences of the Post-Economic Revolution”
14. P. Drucker. The era of social transformation.
15. Metamorphoses of Power: Knowledge, Wealth and Power at the Threshold of the 20th Century
16. Value added in the manufacturing industry in 2007
17. Korotaev A. V. et al. Laws of History: Mathematical Modeling and Forecasting of World and Regional Development. Ed. 3, n. revised and additional M.: URSS, 2010. Chapter 1 .
18. A. Korotaev. China is a beneficiary of the Washington Consensus
19. See, for example: Korotaev A. V., Khalturina D. A. Modern trends in world development. Moscow: Librokom, 2009; System monitoring. Global and Regional Development. M.: Librokom, 2009. ISBN 978-5-397-00917-1 ; Forecast and modeling of crises and world dynamics / Ed. ed. A. A. Akaev, A. V. Korotaev, G. G. Malinetsky. M.: Publishing house LKI / URSS, 2010 . pp.234-248.
20. Lecture "Post-industrial world as a closed economic system"
21. Grinin L. E., Korotaev A. V. The Global Crisis in Retrospect: A Brief History of Ups and Downs: From Lycurgus to Alan Greenspan. Moscow: Librocom/URSS, 2010 .
22. S. Ermolaev. Destruction in academic heads. Why capitalist society cannot be post-industrial
23. D. Kovalev. POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND VIRTUALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND RUSSIA

Sociology distinguishes several types of society: traditional, industrial and post-industrial. The difference between the formations is enormous. Moreover, each type of device has unique characteristics and features.

The difference lies in the attitude towards the person, ways of organizing economic activity. The transition from the traditional to the industrial and post-industrial (information) society is extremely difficult.

Traditional

The presented type of social system was formed first. In this case, the regulation of relationships between people is based on tradition. An agrarian society, or traditional, differs from industrial and post-industrial ones primarily by low mobility in the social sphere. In such a way, there is a clear distribution of roles, and the transition from one class to another is almost impossible. An example is the caste system in India. The structure of this society is characterized by stability and a low level of development. The basis of the future role of a person is, first of all, his origin. Social elevators are absent in principle, in some way they are even undesirable. The transition of individuals from one layer to another in the hierarchy can provoke the process of destruction of the entire habitual way of life.

In an agrarian society, individualism is not welcome. All human actions are aimed at maintaining the life of the community. Freedom of choice in this case can lead to a change in formation or cause the destruction of the entire structure. Economic relations between people are strictly regulated. Under normal market relations, there is an increase in citizens, that is, processes that are undesirable for the entire traditional society are initiated.

Basis of the economy

The economy of this type of formation is agrarian. That is, the land is the basis of wealth. The more allotments an individual owns, the higher his social status. The tools of production are archaic and practically do not develop. This also applies to other areas of life. In the early stages of the formation of a traditional society, natural exchange prevails. Money as a universal commodity and a measure of the value of other items are absent in principle.

There is no industrial production as such. With the development, handicraft production of the necessary tools and other household items arises. This process is long, since most citizens living in a traditional society prefer to produce everything themselves. Subsistence farming predominates.

Demography and life

In an agrarian system, most people live in local communities. At the same time, the change of place of business is extremely slow and painful. It is also important to take into account the fact that at a new place of residence, problems often arise with the allocation of a land allotment. Own plot with the opportunity to grow different crops is the basis of life in a traditional society. Food is also obtained through cattle breeding, gathering and hunting.

In a traditional society, the birth rate is high. This is primarily due to the need for the survival of the community itself. There is no medicine, so often simple diseases and injuries become fatal. Average life expectancy is low.

Life is organized according to the foundations. It is also not subject to any changes. At the same time, the life of all members of society depends on religion. All canons and foundations in the community are regulated by faith. Changes and an attempt to escape from habitual existence are suppressed by religious dogmas.

Change of formation

The transition from a traditional society to an industrial and post-industrial one is only possible with a sharp development of technology. This became possible in the 17th and 18th centuries. In many ways, the development of progress was due to the plague epidemic that swept Europe. A sharp decline in population provoked the development of technology, the emergence of mechanized tools of production.

industrial formation

Sociologists associate the transition from the traditional type of society to industrial and post-industrial ones with a change in the economic component of the way people live. The growth of production capacities has led to urbanization, that is, the outflow of part of the population from the countryside to the city. Large settlements were formed, in which the mobility of citizens increased significantly.

The structure of the formation is flexible and dynamic. Machine production is actively developing, labor is automated higher. The use of new (at that time) technologies is typical not only for industry, but also for agriculture. The total share of employment in the agricultural sector does not exceed 10%.

Entrepreneurial activity becomes the main factor of development in an industrial society. Therefore, the position of the individual is determined by his skills and abilities, the desire for development and education. The origin also remains important, but gradually its influence decreases.

Form of government

Gradually, with the growth of production and the increase of capital in an industrial society, a conflict is brewing between a generation of entrepreneurs and representatives of the old aristocracy. In many countries this process has culminated in a change in the very structure of the state. Typical examples include the French Revolution or the emergence of a constitutional monarchy in England. After these changes, the archaic aristocracy lost its former opportunities to influence the life of the state (although in general they continued to listen to their opinion).

Economics of an industrial society

The economy of such a formation is based on the extensive exploitation of natural resources and labor. According to Marx, in a capitalist industrial society, the main roles are assigned directly to those who own the tools of labor. Resources are often developed to the detriment of the environment, the state of the environment is deteriorating.

At the same time, production is growing at an accelerated pace. The quality of the staff comes first. Manual labor also persists, but to minimize costs, industrialists and entrepreneurs are beginning to invest in technology development.

A characteristic feature of the industrial formation is the fusion of banking and industrial capital. In an agrarian society, especially in its early stages development, usury was pursued. With the development of progress, interest on loans became the basis for the development of the economy.

post-industrial

Post-industrial society began to take shape in the middle of the last century. The countries of Western Europe, the USA and Japan became the locomotive of development. The features of the formation are to increase the share in the gross domestic product information technologies. Transformations also affected industry and agriculture. Productivity increased, manual labor decreased.

The locomotive of further development was the formation of a consumer society. The increase in the share of quality services and goods has led to the development of technology, increased investment in science.

The concept of a post-industrial society was formed by a lecturer at Harvard University. After his work, some sociologists also brought out the concept of the information society, although in many ways these concepts are synonymous.

Opinions

There are two opinions in the theory of the emergence of a post-industrial society. From a classical point of view, the transition was made possible by:

1. Production automation.
2. The need for a high educational level of staff.
3. Increasing demand for quality services.
4. Increasing the incomes of the majority of the population of developed countries.

Marxists put forward their own theory on this matter. According to it, the transition to a post-industrial (information) society from industrial and traditional became possible due to the global division of labor. There was a concentration of industries in different regions of the planet, as a result of which the qualifications of service personnel increased.

Deindustrialization

The information society has given rise to another socio-economic process: deindustrialization. In developed countries, the share of workers involved in industry is declining. At the same time, the influence of direct production on the economy of the state also falls. According to statistics, from 1970 to 2015, the share of industry in the US and Western Europe in the gross domestic product decreased from 40 to 28%. Part of the production was transferred to other regions of the planet. This process gave rise to a sharp increase in development in the countries, accelerated the pace of transition from the agrarian (traditional) and industrial types of society to the post-industrial one.

Risks

The intensive path of development and the formation of an economy based on scientific knowledge is fraught with various risks. The migration process has grown sharply. At the same time, some countries lagging behind in development begin to experience a shortage of qualified personnel who move to regions with an information type of economy. The effect provokes the development of crisis phenomena, which are more characteristic of the industrial social formation.

Demographic skew is also causing concern among experts. Three stages of the development of society (traditional, industrial and post-industrial) have different attitudes towards the family and fertility. For an agrarian formation, a large family is the basis of survival. Approximately the same opinion exists in industrial society. The transition to a new formation was marked by a sharp decline in the birth rate and the aging of the population. Therefore, countries with an information economy are actively attracting qualified, educated youth from other regions of the planet, thereby increasing the development gap.

Experts are also concerned about the decline in the growth rates of post-industrial society. The traditional (agrarian) and industrial sectors still have room to develop, increase production and change the format of the economy. The information formation is the crown of the process of evolution. New technologies are being developed all the time, but breakthrough solutions (for example, the transition to nuclear energy, space exploration) appear less and less often. Therefore, sociologists predict an increase in crisis phenomena.

Coexistence

Now there is a paradoxical situation: industrial, post-industrial and traditional societies coexist quite peacefully in different regions of the planet. An agrarian formation with an appropriate way of life is more typical for some countries in Africa and Asia. Industrial with gradual evolutionary processes towards information is observed in Eastern Europe and the CIS.

Industrial, post-industrial and traditional society are different primarily in relation to the human personality. In the first two cases, development is based on individualism, while in the second, collective principles predominate. Any manifestation of willfulness and an attempt to stand out are condemned.

Social elevators

Social lifts characterize the mobility of the population within society. In traditional, industrial and post-industrial formations they are expressed differently. For an agrarian society, only the displacement of an entire stratum of the population is possible, for example, through a revolt or revolution. In other cases, mobility is possible even for one individual. The final position depends on the knowledge, acquired skills and activity of a person.

In fact, the differences between traditional, industrial and post-industrial types of society are enormous. Sociologists and philosophers study their formation and stages of development.

It is proved that society is constantly evolving. The development of society can proceed in two directions and take three definite forms.

Directions of development of society

It is customary to single out social progress (the trend of development from the lowest level of the material state of the society and the spiritual evolution of the individual to a higher one) and regression (the opposite of progress: the transition from a more developed state to a less developed one).

If we demonstrate the development of society graphically, we will get a broken line (where ups and downs will be displayed, for example, the period of fascism is a stage of social regression).

Society is a complex and multifaceted mechanism, in connection with which progress can be traced in one of its areas, while regression in another.

So, if we turn to historical facts, we can clearly see technological progress (the transition from primitive tools to the most complex CNC machines, from pack animals to trains, cars, airplanes, etc.). However, the reverse side of the coin (regression) is the destruction of natural resources, the undermining of the natural human habitat, etc.

Criteria of social progress

There are six of them:

• affirmation of democracy;
• the growth of the welfare of the population and its social security;
• improving interpersonal relationships;
• the growth of spirituality and the ethical component of society;
• weakening interpersonal confrontation;
• a measure of freedom granted to an individual by society (the degree of individual freedom guaranteed by society).

Forms of social development

The most common is evolution (smooth, gradual changes in the life of society that occur naturally). Features of her character: gradualness, continuity, ascent (for example, scientific and technical evolution).

The second form of social development is revolution (quick, deep changes; a radical upheaval of social life). The nature of revolutionary change has radical and fundamental features.

Revolutions can be

• short-term or long-term;
• within one or more states;
• within one or more areas.

If these changes affect all existing public spheres (politics, daily life, economy, culture, public organization), then the revolution is called social. Such changes cause strong emotionality, mass activity of the entire population (for example, such Russian revolutions as the October, February).

The third form of social development is reforms (a set of measures aimed at transforming specific aspects of society, for example, economic reform or reform in the field of education).

Systematic model of typologies of social development D. Bell

This American sociologist delimited world history into stages (types) regarding the development of society:

• industrial;
• post-industrial.

The transition from one stage to another is accompanied by a change in technology, form of ownership, political regime, lifestyle, social structure of society, mode of production, social institutions, culture, and population.

Pre-industrial society: characteristics

There are simple and complex societies. A pre-industrial society (simple) is a society without social inequality and division into strata or classes, as well as without commodity-money relations and the state apparatus.

In primitive times, gatherers, hunters, then early pastoralists, farmers lived in a simple society.

The social structure of a pre-industrial society (simple) has the following features:

• small size of the association;
• primitive level of development of technology and division of labor;
• egalitarianism (economic, political, social equality);
• priority of blood ties.

Stages in the evolution of simple societies

• groups (local);
• communities (primitive).

The second stage has two periods:

• tribal community;
• neighborly.

The transition from tribal communities to neighboring ones became possible thanks to a sedentary lifestyle: groups of blood relatives settled close to each other and were united both by marriages and by mutual assistance regarding joint territories, by a labor corporation.

Thus, pre-industrial society is characterized by the gradual emergence of the family, the emergence of a division of labor (inter-gender, inter-age), the emergence of social norms that are taboos (absolute prohibitions).

Transitional form from a simple society to a complex one

The chiefdom is a hierarchical structure of a system of people that does not have an extensive administrative apparatus, which is an integral part of a mature state.

According to the size criterion, this is a large association (more than a tribe). There is already horticulture without arable farming and a surplus product without surplus. Gradually, there is a stratification into rich and poor, noble and simple. The number of management levels - 2-10 and more. Modern examples of chiefdoms are: New Guinea, Tropical Africa and Polynesia.

Complex pre-industrial societies

The final stage in the evolution of simple societies, as well as the prologue to complex ones, was the Neolithic Revolution. A complex (pre-industrial) society is characterized by the emergence of a surplus product, social inequality and stratification (castes, classes, slavery, estates), commodity-money relations, an extensive, specialized management apparatus.

It is usually numerous (hundreds of thousands - hundreds of millions of people). Within the framework of a complex society, consanguineous, personal relationships are replaced by unrelated, impersonal ones (this is especially evident in cities, when even cohabitants may be unfamiliar).

Social ranks are replaced by social stratification. As a rule, a pre-industrial society (complex) is referred to as stratified because the strata are numerous and the groups include only those who are not related to the ruling class.

Signs of a complex society by V. Child

There are at least eight of them. The signs of a pre-industrial society (complex) are as follows:

1. People are settled in cities.
2. Non-agricultural specialization of labor is developing.
3. A surplus product appears and accumulates.
4. There are clear class divisions.
5. Customary law is replaced by legal law.
6. Large-scale public works such as irrigation are born, and pyramids are also emerging.
7. Overseas trade appears.
8. There is writing, mathematics and elite culture.

Despite the fact that the agrarian society (pre-industrial) is characterized by the emergence of a large number of cities, most of the population lived in the countryside (a closed territorial peasant community, leading a subsistence economy, which is poorly connected with the market). The village is oriented towards religious values ​​and traditional way of life.

Characteristic features of pre-industrial society

The following features of a traditional society are distinguished:

1. Agriculture occupies a dominant position, which is dominated by manual technologies (the energy of animals and people is used).
2. A significant proportion of the population is in rural areas.
3. Production is focused on personal consumption, and therefore market relations are underdeveloped.
4. Caste or estate classification system of the population.
5. Low level of social mobility.
6. Large patriarchal families.
7. Social change is proceeding at a slow pace.
8. Priority is given to the religious and mythological worldview.
9. Homogeneity of values ​​and norms.
10. Sacralized, authoritarian political power.

These are schematic and simplified features of a traditional society.

Industrial type of society

The transition to this type was due to two global processes:

• industrialization (creation of large-scale machine production);
• urbanization (resettlement of people from villages to cities, as well as the promotion of urban life values ​​in all segments of the population).

Industrial society (originated in the 18th century) is the child of two revolutions - political (the French Revolution) and economic (the English Industrial Revolution). The result of the first is economic freedoms, a new social stratification, and the second is a new political form (democracy), political freedoms.

Feudalism has been replaced by capitalism. In everyday life, the concept of "industrialization" has become stronger. Its flagship is England. This country is the birthplace of machine production, new legislation and free enterprise.

Industrialization is interpreted as the use of scientific knowledge regarding industrial technology, the discovery of fundamentally new sources of energy that made it possible to perform all the work previously carried out by people or draft animals.

Thanks to the transition to industry, a small proportion of the population was able to feed a significant number of people without the procedure for cultivating the land.

Compared with agricultural states and empires, industrial countries are more numerous (tens, hundreds of millions of people). These are the so-called highly urbanized societies (cities began to play a dominant role).

Signs of an industrial society:

• industrialization;
• class antagonism;
• representative democracy;
• urbanization;
• the division of society into classes;
• transfer of power to the owners;
• little social mobility.

Thus, we can say that pre-industrial and industrial societies are actually different social worlds. This transition obviously could not be either easy or quick. It took Western societies, so to speak, the pioneers of modernization, more than one century to implement this process.

post-industrial society

It gives priority to the service sector, which prevails over industry and agriculture. The social structure of the post-industrial society is shifting in favor of those employed in the aforementioned area, and new elites are also emerging: scientist and technocrats.

This type of society is characterized as "post-class" in view of the fact that it shows the collapse of entrenched social structures, identities that are so characteristic of an industrial society.

Industrial and post-industrial society: distinctive features

The main characteristics of modern and postmodern society are shown in the table below.

Characteristic	Modern society	postmodern society
1. The basis of public welfare
2. Mass class		Managers, employees
3. Social structure	"Grainy", status	"Cellular", functional
4. Ideology	sociocentrism	Humanism
5. Technical basis	Industrial	Informational
6. Leading industry	Industry
7. The principle of management and organization	Management	Coordination
8. Political regime		Self-government, direct democracy
9. Religion		Small denominations

Thus, both industrial and post-industrial society are modern types. The main distinguishing feature of the latter is that a person is not considered primarily as an “economic person”. A post-industrial society is a “post-labor”, “post-economic” society (the economic subsystem loses its decisive importance; labor is not the basis of social relations).

Comparative characteristics of the considered types of development of society

Let us trace the main differences that have a traditional, industrial and post-industrial society. Comparative characteristics presented in the table.

Comparison criterion	Pre-industrial (traditional)	Industrial	post-industrial
1. Main production factor
2. Main production product	Food	Industrial goods
3. Features of production	Exceptionally manual labor	Widespread use of technologies and mechanisms	Computerization of society, automation of production
4. Specificity of labor	Individuality	Predominance of standard activities	Encouraging creativity
5. The structure of employment	Agriculture - approximately 75%	Agriculture - approximately 10%, industry - 75%	Agriculture - 3%, industry - 33%, services - 66%
6. Priority type of export	Mainly raw materials	Manufactured products
7. Social structure	Classes, estates, castes included in the collective, their isolation; little social mobility	Classes, their mobility; simplification of the existing social structures	Preservation of the existing social differentiation; an increase in the size of the middle class; professional differentiation based on qualifications and level of knowledge
8. Life expectancy	40 to 50 years old	Up to 70 years old and above	Over 70 years
9. The degree of human impact on the environment	Uncontrolled, local	Uncontrolled, global	controlled, global
10. Relations with other states	Minor	Close relationship	Complete openness of society
11. Political sphere	Most often, monarchical forms of government, lack of political freedoms, power is above the law	Political freedoms, equality before the law, democratic transformations	Political pluralism, a strong civil society, the emergence of a new democratic form

So, it is worth recalling once again the three types of social development: traditional, industrial and post-industrial society.

The most common point of view in the social sciences today is that all human communities can be classified into three main types.

Society types:

1. traditional society
2. industrial society
3. post-industrial society

1. Traditional society

Traditional society - type of agrarian society. It is based on a subsistence economy, a monarchical system of government and the predominance of religious values ​​and worldview.

Characteristic features of a traditional (agrarian, pre-industrial) society:

1. Manual labor and primitive technologies.
2. The predominance of agriculture.
3. Estate system.
4. Low social mobility.
5. The predominance of the values ​​of collectivism.
6. The influence of the church on public life.
7. patriarchal family.

signs

• The main economic activity is agriculture.
• Very low development rates.
• The society is directed to the past, inertially, afraid of innovations.
• Complete absorption of the individual by the collective.
• Society is aimed at meeting everyday needs.

2. Industrial society

industrial society - determined by the level of technical, industrial development.

Characteristic features of an industrial society

1. The predominant development of industry.
2. Mass production and automation..
3. The transformation of science into a public institution.
4. The birth of mass culture.
5. class structure.
6. Providing rights and freedoms to people.
7. Formation of civil society.

signs

• Society is based on machine production and factory organization of labor.
• The economy becomes the basic structure of society.
• The main driving mechanism of society is the desire for economic growth.
• Society strives to meet social needs (money, career, quality of life).
• It aims to maximize adaptation to the present moment.
• The main way to make a decision is an empirical study of mass character.

3. Post-industrial society

Post-industrial society or information society - a modern type of society based on the dominance of information (computer technology) in production. Development of computer and information technology.

Characteristic features of a post-industrial society

1. Development of the service sector.
2. Information (knowledge) becomes a unit of goods.
3. Development of information technologies.
4. Professional division of society.
5. Widespread use of computer technology.
6. Globalization of the economy.
7. Implementation of the scientific and technological revolution.
8. The dominance of the family of partner type.

signs

• Since agriculture and industrial products in such a society more is produced than it can use, more than 50% of the population goes into the service sector.
• The main factor in the development of this society is theoretical knowledge or information.
• The society is future-oriented and the main decision-making factor is modeling and analytical methods.
• Social communication takes place at the level of "man-man", and not at the level of "man-nature" or "man-machine".
• The leading technology is mental technology, not manual labor as in traditional and not machine technology as in industrial.

By degree of openness:

• closed society - characterized by a static social structure, limited mobility, traditionalism, very slow introduction of innovations or their absence, authoritarian ideology.
• open society - characterized by a dynamic social structure, high social mobility, ability to innovate, pluralism, lack of state ideology.

According to the presence of writing:

• preliterate
• Written (owner of the alphabet or sign writing)

According to the degree of social stratification:

• Simple - pre-state formations (no leaders and subordinates)
• Complex - several levels of management, layers of the population.

Modern societies differ in many ways, but they also have the same parameters by which they can be typified.

One of the main trends in typology is choice of political relations, forms of government as grounds for distinguishing different types of society. For example, u and i societies differ in type of government: monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy. In modern versions of this approach, there is a distinction totalitarian(the state determines all the main directions of social life); democratic(population can influence government structures) and authoritarian(combining elements of totalitarianism and democracy) societies.

The basis typology of society supposed Marxism difference between societies type industrial relations in various socio-economic formations: primitive communal society (primitive appropriating mode of production); societies with an Asian mode of production (the presence of a special type of collective ownership of land); slave-owning societies (ownership of people and the use of slave labor); feudal (exploitation of peasants attached to the land); communist or socialist societies (equal attitude of all to ownership of the means of production through the elimination of private property relations).

Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies

The most stable in modern sociology is considered a typology based on the allocation traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies.

traditional society(it is also called simple and agrarian) is a society with an agrarian way of life, sedentary structures and a method of sociocultural regulation based on traditions (traditional society). The behavior of individuals in it is strictly controlled, regulated by the customs and norms of traditional behavior, established social institutions, among which the family will be the most important. Attempts of any social transformations, innovations are rejected. For him characterized by low rates of development, production. Important for this type of society is the well-established social solidarity that Durkheim established while studying the society of Australian aborigines.

traditional society characterized by a natural division and specialization of labor (mainly by gender and age), personalization of interpersonal communication (directly individuals, not officials or status persons), informal regulation of interactions (norms of unwritten laws of religion and morality), connectedness of members by kinship relations (family type of community organization) , a primitive system of community management (hereditary power, the rule of elders).

Modern societies differ in the following traits: the role-based nature of interaction (expectations and behavior of people are determined by the social status and social functions of individuals); the developing deep division of labor (on a professional and qualification basis related to education and work experience); a formal system of regulation of relations (based on written law: laws, regulations, contracts, etc.); a complex system of social management (singling out the institution of management, special governing bodies: political, economic, territorial and self-government); secularization of religion (separation of it from the system of government); the allocation of many social institutions (self-reproducing systems of special relations that allow for social control, inequality, protection of its members, distribution of benefits, production, communication).

These include industrial and post-industrial societies.

industrial society- this is a type of organization of social life, which combines the freedom and interests of the individual with the general principles governing their joint activities. It is characterized by the flexibility of social structures, social mobility, and a developed system of communications.

In the 1960s concepts appear post-industrial (informational) societies (D. Bell, A. Touraine, Y. Habermas), caused by drastic changes in the economy and culture of the most developed countries. The role of knowledge and information, computer and automatic devices is recognized as leading in society.. An individual who has received the necessary education, who has access to latest information, receives preferential chances of moving up the ladder of the social hierarchy. Creative work becomes the main goal of a person in society.

The negative side of the post-industrial society is the danger of strengthening on the part of the state, the ruling elite through access to information and electronic means mass media and communication over people and society as a whole.

life world human society is getting stronger obeys the logic of efficiency and instrumentalism. Culture, including traditional values, is destroyed under the influence of administrative control gravitating towards standardization and unification of social relations, social behavior. Society is increasingly subject to the logic of economic life and bureaucratic thinking.

Distinctive features of a post-industrial society:

• the transition from the production of goods to a service economy;
• the rise and dominance of highly educated vocational professionals;
• the main role of theoretical knowledge as a source of discoveries and political decisions in society;
• control over technology and the ability to assess the consequences of scientific and technological innovations;
• decision-making based on the creation of intelligent technology, as well as using the so-called information technology.

The latter was brought to life by the needs of the one that began to form. information society. The emergence of such a phenomenon is by no means accidental. The basis of social dynamics in the information society is not traditional material resources, which are also largely exhausted, but information (intellectual): knowledge, scientific, organizational factors, intellectual abilities of people, their initiative, creativity.

The concept of post-industrialism has been developed in detail today, it has a lot of supporters and an ever-increasing number of opponents. The world has formed two main directions assessments of the future development of human society: eco-pessimism and techno-optimism. eco-pessimism predicts in 2030 a total global catastrophe due to increasing environmental pollution; destruction of the Earth's biosphere. Techno-optimism draws a more rosy picture, assuming that scientific and technological progress will cope with all the difficulties in the development of society.

Basic typologies of society

Several typologies of society have been proposed in the history of social thought.

Typologies of society during the formation of sociological science

French scientist, founder of sociology O. Comte proposed a three-part stadial typology, which included:

• stage of military domination;
• stage of feudal rule;
• stage of industrial civilization.

The basis of the typology G. Spencer the principle of the evolutionary development of societies from simple to complex, i.e. from an elementary society to an increasingly differentiated one. Spencer presented the development of societies as an integral part of an evolutionary process that is unified for all nature. The lowest pole of the evolution of society is formed by the so-called military societies, characterized by high homogeneity, the subordinate position of the individual and the dominance of coercion as an integration factor. From this phase, through a series of intermediate phases, society develops to the highest pole - an industrial society dominated by democracy, the voluntary nature of integration, spiritual pluralism and diversity.

Typologies of society in the classical period of development of sociology

These typologies differ from those described above. The sociologists of that period saw their task in explaining it, starting not from the general order of nature and the laws of its development, but from itself and its internal laws. So, E. Durkheim sought to find the "original cell" of the social as such, and for this purpose he was looking for the "simplest", most elementary society, the simplest form of organization of "collective consciousness". Therefore, his typology of societies is built from simple to complex, and it is based on the principle of complicating the form of social solidarity, i.e. awareness by individuals of their unity. Mechanical solidarity operates in simple societies, because the individuals that make up them are very similar in consciousness and life situation - like particles of a mechanical whole. In complex societies there is a complex system division of labor, differentiated functions of individuals; therefore, the individuals themselves are separated from each other in terms of their way of life and consciousness. They are united by functional ties, and their solidarity is "organic", functional. Both types of solidarity are present in any society, but mechanical solidarity dominates in archaic societies, while organic solidarity dominates in modern ones.

German classic of sociology M. Weber viewed the social as a system of domination and subordination. His approach was based on the concept of society as the result of a struggle for power and to maintain dominance. Societies are classified according to the type of domination that has developed in them. The charismatic type of domination arises on the basis of a personal special power - charisma - of the ruler. Charisma is usually held by priests or leaders, and such dominance is irrational and does not require a special system of government. modern society, according to Weber, a legal type of domination is inherent, based on law, characterized by the presence of a bureaucratic management system and the operation of the principle of rationality.

Typology of a French sociologist J. Gurvich differs by a complex multi-level system. He identifies four types of archaic societies that had a primary global structure:

• tribal (Australia, American Indians);
• tribal, which included heterogeneous and weakly hierarchized groups, united around a leader endowed with magical powers (Polynesia, Melanesia);
• tribal with a military organization, consisting of family groups and clans (North America);
• tribal tribes united in monarchical states ("black" Africa).

• charismatic societies (Egypt, Ancient China, Persia, Japan);
• patriarchal societies (Homeric Greeks, Jews of the Old Testament era, Romans, Slavs, Franks);
• city-states (Greek policies, Roman cities, Italian cities of the Renaissance);
• feudal hierarchical societies (European Middle Ages);
• societies that gave rise to enlightened absolutism and capitalism (Europe only).

IN modern world Gurvich distinguishes: technical-bureaucratic society; a liberal-democratic society built on the principles of collectivist etatism; a society of pluralistic collectivism, etc.

Typologies of the Society of Contemporary Sociology

The postclassical stage in the development of sociology is characterized by typologies based on the principle of the technical and technological development of societies. Nowadays, the most popular typology is one that distinguishes traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies.

Traditional societies characterized by a high development of agricultural labor. The main sector of production is the procurement of raw materials, which is carried out within the framework of peasant families; members of society seek to meet mainly domestic needs. The basis of the economy is the family economy, capable of satisfying, if not all of their needs, then a significant part of them. Technical development is extremely weak. In decision making, the main method is the trial and error method. Social relations are extremely poorly developed, as is social differentiation. Such societies are traditionally oriented and therefore directed towards the past.

industrial society - a society characterized by high industrial development and rapid economic growth. Economic development It is carried out mainly due to the extensive, consumer attitude to nature: in order to meet its actual needs, such a society strives for the fullest possible development of the natural resources at its disposal. The main sector of production is the processing and processing of materials carried out by teams of workers in factories and plants. Such a society and its members strive for maximum adaptation to the present moment and satisfaction of social needs. The main decision-making method is empirical research.

Another very important feature of an industrial society is the so-called "modernizing optimism", i.e. absolute confidence that any problem, including social, can be solved based on scientific knowledge and technology.

post-industrial society- this is a society that is emerging at the moment and has a number of significant differences from an industrial society. If an industrial society is characterized by a desire for the maximum development of industry, then in a post-industrial society, knowledge, technology and information play a much more noticeable (and ideally paramount) role. In addition, the service sector is developing at a rapid pace, overtaking industry.

In a post-industrial society, there is no faith in the omnipotence of science. This is partly due to the fact that humanity has faced the negative consequences of its own activities. For this reason, “environmental values” come to the fore, and this means not only a careful attitude to nature, but also an attentive attitude to the balance and harmony necessary for the adequate development of society.

The basis of a post-industrial society is information, which in turn gave rise to another type of society - informational. According to the proponents of the information society theory, a completely new society is emerging, characterized by processes that are opposite to those that took place in the previous phases of the development of societies even in the 20th century. For example, instead of centralization, there is regionalization; instead of hierarchization and bureaucratization, democratization; instead of concentration, disaggregation; instead of standardization, individualization. All these processes are driven by information technology.

Service providers either provide information or use it. For example, teachers transfer knowledge to students, repairmen use their knowledge to service equipment, lawyers, doctors, bankers, pilots, designers sell clients their specialized knowledge of laws, anatomy, finance, aerodynamics and color schemes. They do not produce anything, unlike factory workers in an industrial society. Instead, they transfer or use knowledge to provide services that others are willing to pay for.

Researchers are already using the term virtual society" to describe the modern type of society that has developed and is developing under the influence of information technologies, primarily Internet technologies. The virtual, or possible, world has become a new reality as a result of the computer boom that has swept society. Virtualization (replacement of reality with a simulation/image) of society, the researchers note, is total, since all the elements that make up society are virtualized, significantly changing their appearance, their status and role.

Post-industrial society is also defined as a society " post-economic", "post-labor”, i.e. a society in which the economic subsystem loses its defining significance, and labor ceases to be the basis of all social relations. In a post-industrial society, a person loses his economic essence and is no longer regarded as an "economic man"; it focuses on new, “post-materialist” values. The emphasis is shifting to social, humanitarian problems, and the priority issues are the quality and safety of life, self-realization of the individual in various social spheres, in connection with which new criteria for well-being and social well-being are being formed.

According to the concept of a post-economic society developed by the Russian scientist V.L. Inozemtsev, in a post-economic society, in contrast to an economic society focused on material enrichment, the main goal for most people is the development of their own personality.

The theory of post-economic society is associated with a new periodization of the history of mankind, in which three large-scale eras can be distinguished - pre-economic, economic and post-economic. Such periodization is based on two criteria - the type of human activity and the nature of the relationship between the interests of the individual and society. The post-economic type of society is defined as a type of social structure where a person's economic activity is becoming more intense and complex, but is no longer determined by his material interests, is not set by the traditionally understood economic expediency. The economic basis of such a society is formed by the destruction private property and a return to personal property, to a state of non-alienation of the worker from the instruments of production. The post-economic society is characterized by a new type of social confrontation - the confrontation between the information and intellectual elite and all people who are not included in it, employed in the field of mass production and therefore pushed to the periphery of society. However, each member of such a society has the opportunity to enter the elite himself, since belonging to the elite is determined by abilities and knowledge.