Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

Notes
3 Post-industrial society
1 Bell (1979) distinguishes the terms conceptually as follows: information means ‘data
processing in the broadest sense’; knowledge means ‘an organised set of statements
of fact or ideas, presenting a reasoned judgement or an experimental result, which
is transmitted to others through some communication medium in some systematic
form’ (p. 168). In practice he often uses the two terms interchangeably when discussing
post-industrial society, though often, as we shall see, his theorising depends
on a particular meaning of the term ‘knowledge’.
2 John Goldthorpe complained in 1971 of a ‘recrudescence of historicism’ among
social scientists, and he charged Bell directly, ‘even though historicist arguments may
not be openly advanced or may be actually disavowed’ (Goldthorpe, 1971, p. 263).
3 ‘As national incomes rise, one finds, as in the theorem of Christian Engel . . . that the
proportion of money devoted to food at home begins to drop, and the marginal increments
are used first for durables (clothing, housing, automobiles) and then for luxury
items, recreation, and the like. Thus, a third sector, that of personal services, begins
to grow: restaurants, hotels, auto services, travel, entertainment, sports, as people’s
horizons expand and new wants and tastes develop’ (Bell, 1973, p. 128).
4 Regulation School theory
1 To the extent that it shares this problematic it can be appreciated that Regulation
School theory, as an apparently critical theory of capitalism which derives a good
deal of its concepts and insights from Marxist writings, fits rather neatly into a conservative
framework. After all, if one seeks to explain how and why capitalism maintains
itself, then is this not tantamount to denying the Marxist theme that capitalism will
be supplanted? Certainly Regulation School theory presents a somewhat functionalist
account, one that, in identifying how order is maintained under capitalism,
somehow elides the ragged edges of the system.
2 Arthur Marwick (1982) demonstrates that average weekly earnings rose 130 per cent
between 1955 and 1969; over the same period retail prices rose only 63 per cent.
Moreover, while prices of food and other necessities rose steadily, many consumer
goods such as cars, televisions and washing machines actually cost less (p. 118; cf.
Morgan, 1990, p. 506).
3 Eric Hobsbawm (1968) calculates an almost 300 per cent increase in instalment debt
in Britain between 1957 and 1964 (p. 225).
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