Bell And Castells Present A Different Perspective On The Information Society. Discuss Their Arguments, Citing Research That Supports And Research That Refutes Their Positions

Bell And Castells Present A Different Perspective On The Information Society. Discuss Their Arguments, Citing Research That Supports And Research That Refutes Their Positions

Information society is a difficult term to give just one definition to as it encompasses many different themes, and has been interpreted differently by various authors. A simplistic description would be the way in which our society is changing and what is influencing these changes. There are three themes associated with the information society debate, which will be echoed throughout this essay. Firstly Ð''the rise to the fore of culture, reflected in the growth of ownership and use of a range of cultural technologies. Secondly the changing economy, the changing nature of work and changing patterns of inequality, and finally, spatial and temporal dimensions' (Mackay et al., 2001, pp.1-2). I intend to explore the perspectives of two of the leading theorists on the information society debate; namely, Daniel Bell an American sociologist and Manuel Castells, a professor of sociology. I will summarize their arguments, using documented evidence to analyse their theories of the information society.

Daniel Bell leads with the argument that as a society we are deskilling as a work force and that technology is driving society to a more service based sector. In his earlier work Bell refers to Ð''post-industrial society' and later he uses the term Ð''information society'; although he uses different terminology his meaning remains the same. Bell argues that America has experienced an employment shift from pre-industrial e.g. early farming - the raw muscle of a farmer and a horse, through industrial Ð'-the use of machinery e.g. work in textile mills, to post-industrial Ð'- services and information illustrated by the boom in internet providers.

Bell offers a table of statistics to illustrate this decline in the number of people working in the manufacturing sector and a rise in the number of people working in the service sector. Using one of his examples, Ð''in 1870, approximately 21 per cent of the US labour force worked in the service sector and 47 per cent worked in the manufacturing sector, by 1970, more than 65 per cent of the

US labour force was working in the service sector and less than 5 per cent in the manufacturing sector' (Bell, 1980, cited in Mackay et al., 2001., p.23). Whilst Bell makes a valid argument he does not take into account that many aspects, which we could associate with today's service sector, did not exist a decade ago e.g. the Internet, and neither does he define what a Ð''service' is. Bell's broad use of the term Ð''manufacturing sector' is somewhat deceiving as what he actually uses are statistics relating to the agricultural sector to emphasize his point. This raises the point of how reliable and comprehensive his research is. Two other theorists, Gershuny and Miles, who conducted a similar study, refute Bell's explanation of the employment shift citing that rather than a shift from the manufacturing sector to the service sector we have seen a shift from the agriculture sector to the service sector. They claim that Ð''between 1840 and 1980 the proportion of the workforce of the UK employment in manufacturing remained at around 45-50 per cent; its collapse after 1980 was a consequence of global recession and monetarist policies rather than some other dynamic which lead to the growth of the service sector' (Mackay et al., 2001, p.24). It is difficult to completely dismiss Bell's claims as the research by Gershuny and Miles relates to the UK and Bell's to the US and neither party account for what they mean by agricultural or manufacturing employment, the distinction between these two seem blurred, raising the question of the coherency of their arguments. Further international confliction with Bell's theories is evident when looking at employment changes in Spain. Unlike in America, the service sector in Spain has seen a growth of employment which has not replaced the industrial employment figures. Between 1973 and 1993 despite a drop of only 6 per cent in the industrial sector Spain has seen a rise of employment of around 20 per cent (Duff and McCleery, 1996, cited in Mackay et al., 2001, p90). These figures do not indicate a collapse in the manufacturing/industrial sector, as Bell suggests, but rather a rise in a new value of the service sector.

Castells refers to the network society rather than the information society arguing that it is not technology which drives society but society which transforms technology. An example of this is with the use of the internet; the perception of time and space has altered from what they once were. Because different countries throughout the world can now interact with each other with the click of a mouse we have, technologically speaking, made the world a smaller place where information is readily available. Castells also argues the Ð''as a society we have not moved on from capitalism rather the Ð''network society' represents a new variant of capitalism' (Mackay et al., 2001, p.33). Additionally he highlights the importance of how technology can help

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