19.2. Transition to post-industrial civilization

Analysis of the consequences caused by the third scientific and technological revolution formed the basis of the theories of the “new industrial” and post-industrial societies developed by Western scientists in the second half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of Soviet theorists were mainly critical of the concepts of R. Aron, D. Bell, J. Galbraith, W. Rostow, E. Jacques, J. Fourastie, P. Drakker, and many other Western scientists in a completely objective and subjective reasons. Despite the universal character of scientific and technological revolution, in the USSR and the countries of the socialist community, it developed for a long time in a limited, mainly military, sphere that did not significantly affect the totality of social and economic relations and the spiritual life of society, as it was in the Western world. The insufficiency or lack of necessary material in connection with this, combined with extreme ideologization, party regulation of research activities (especially in the field of social sciences), restrained the work of scientists in the USSR and socialist countries in this direction. However, with the development of scientific and technological revolution in our country, as well as with the beginning of the process of fundamental political changes at the turn of the 80-90s. these concepts began to find an increasing number of supporters in Russia.

The creators of the concept of "new industrial" and post-industrial societies proceed from the premise that the scientific and technological revolution is the leading factor in the transformation of modern society. Thus, technological progress significantly modified social relations, caused mass needs and at the same time created the means to satisfy them. At the same time, there was a rejection of the development of unified production and consumption, i.e. the process of individualization of both production and consumption intensified, which was primarily expressed in unprecedented shifts in the structure of the labor force, determining its drift from the sphere of production to the sphere of services and information. Thus, work began to lose a pronounced social character (form), because a significant part of people had the opportunity to self-expression and self-improvement on the basis of an individual choice of occupation. In other words, work in a post-industrial society is less and less motivated by an awareness of material necessity (due to sufficient saturation of the market for goods and services, a developed social security system, etc.), modifying into a higher type of activity - creativity.

This is what removes the seemingly unsolvable (according to Marx) social contradiction between the increasingly social production of production and the private appropriation of its results, and a person from an appendage of the machine is increasingly becoming a creator, as evidenced by the intensive growth of the level of skills, professionalism of workers, education in general. For this reason, science in the post-industrial period has become a leading factor in the development of society in general and the improvement of the individual in particular.

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Thus, already within the framework of a post-industrial society, many social problems of Western civilization are solved on the basis of ensuring a decent standard of living, for the majority of individuals in developed countries. At the same time, the post-industrial concept to a certain extent reasonably shows possible ways for the further development of civilization.

However, it is impossible not to take into account the fact that the post-industrial Western civilization system, despite its leadership in the modern world, cannot nevertheless claim to be universal. Its technogenic character does not, in principle, coincide with the foundations of parallel developing civilizations of the East, with their denial of individualism, the cult of the traditional hierarchy of power, collectivism, etc. In addition, the huge number of peoples of the planet (mostly not Anglo-Saxon) hardly face the problems of life in the post-industrial world. the world, often fighting for simple biological survival (the majority of the peoples of Asia, Africa, partly Latin America).

In our opinion, with these comments in mind, we can consider post-industrial civilization as a new stage in the development of Western European civilization, including some of the most advanced countries of the East (Japan, new industrial countries), and on this basis treat it as one of the possible models of public progress.

Questions for self-test

1. 1. Describe the main achievements of modern scientific and technological revolution, show its stages, name the leading countries.

2. 2. What were the most significant results of the introduction of the achievements of the third scientific and technological revolution into the economies of leading countries?

3. 3. Expand the content of the concept of post-industrial society.