Structural change and the theory's emergence
The observation that, as economies develop, labor shifts from agriculture to manufacturing and then to services was formalized in the three-sector hypothesis of Colin Clark (1940) and Jean Fourastié (1949). In the 1950s the United States became the first country where service employment exceeded agriculture and manufacturing combined. Fritz Machlup (1962) estimated that the production and distribution of knowledge accounted for about 29 percent of US gross national product, and Peter Drucker (1969) heralded the age of the knowledge worker. In France, Alain Touraine (1969) saw the new society as a programmed society in which technocrats control information and decisions, and argued that conflict was shifting from labor–management relations to struggles between technocrats and groups such as consumers and students.
Daniel Bell's post-industrial society
In The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973), Daniel Bell divided society into three realms, social structure, polity and culture, and held that post-industrial change occurs mainly in the social structure. He set out five dimensions. In the economic sector, there is a shift from goods production to a service economy, especially health, education, research and government. In the occupational structure, a professional and technical class rises to preeminence. As society's axial principle, theoretical knowledge becomes central as the source of innovation and policy. Society becomes oriented to the future through the planning and control of technology. And decision-making comes to rely on new intellectual technologies such as systems analysis and game theory. Bell put it that if industrial society was a game against fabricated nature, post-industrial society is a game between persons. He also saw universities and research institutions becoming central institutions and meritocracy based on ability and credentials strengthening, a view that dovetails with human capital theory.
Evidence, critiques and legacy
The theory captured the trends of expanding service employment and rising education well. William Baumol (1967) pointed to the cost disease, the rising relative cost of services with slow productivity growth, raising the prospect of slower growth in a service economy. Ronald Inglehart (1977) argued that generations raised in affluence hold post-materialist values emphasizing self-expression and participation. Criticism, though, is extensive. Kumar (1995) and Webster (2014) argued that the break was exaggerated, since many services support manufacturing and capitalist profit logic remains intact. Esping-Andersen (1993) compared how post-industrial class structures differ across welfare-state regimes. Autor and Dorn (2013) documented labor-market polarization, with both high-skill professional and low-skill personal service jobs growing while middle-skill jobs shrank, a picture unlike Bell's optimistic forecast. Bell's concerns carried forward into Manuel Castells's (1996) network society, information society theory and debates on the knowledge-based economy.
FAQ
- What is post-industrial society theory in simple terms?
- It holds that societies centered on making goods in factories turn into societies centered on services, knowledge and professional work.
- How does it relate to information society theory?
- Building on Bell's emphasis on the centrality of theoretical knowledge, information society theory and Castells's network society focus on how information technology and networks reshape social structure.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Bell, D. (1973). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books.
- Touraine, A. (1969). La société post-industrielle. Paris: Denoël.
- Clark, C. (1940). The Conditions of Economic Progress. London: Macmillan.
- Fourastié, J. (1949). Le grand espoir du XXe siècle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
- Drucker, P. F. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society. New York: Harper & Row.
- Machlup, F. (1962). The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Baumol, W. J. (1967). Macroeconomics of unbalanced growth: The anatomy of urban crisis. American Economic Review, 57(3), 415–426.
- Inglehart, R. (1977). The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Esping-Andersen, G. (Ed.). (1993). Changing Classes: Stratification and Mobility in Post-Industrial Societies. London: Sage.
- Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Kumar, K. (1995). From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society: New Theories of the Contemporary World. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Autor, D. H., & Dorn, D. (2013). The growth of low-skill service jobs and the polarization of the US labor market. American Economic Review, 103(5), 1553–1597.
- Webster, F. (2014). Theories of the Information Society (4th ed.). London: Routledge.