SHAPE OF WORK

The differences between industrial work and the information revolution

The differences between industrial work and the information revolution

Introduction

The reflection on the work occupies a prominent place in sociology. Already in the nineteenth century Marx was extensively concerned about this issue. His reflections will be the starting point for this brief essay that attempts to present some considerations about the status of work in contemporary societies. Several authors, although with different approaches and perspectives, agree that over the last three decades have been a number of significant changes in work organization and constitution of the occupational structure of industrial societies. This does not mean that industrial unit work is gone, but there are trends toward greater participation by the service sector. Technology keeps changing; the evidence surrounds us. Technology keeps changing; the evidence surrounds us. This paper highlights the differences between industrial work and the information revolution.

Discussion

Social evolution refers to social or cultural change over relatively long periods of time. The young Karl Marx (Tucker, 1972) hoped-and believed-that society was evolving toward a way of life that would be far more fulfilling than either the modern or ancient situation-a society in which the individual, far from being forced to become one certain “thing” in the division of labour, would be free “to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic” (Pp. 24).

Karl Marx thought that the mental world created by a human society must be understood in terms of how the organisms composing the society were managing to survive and reproduce. As Marx wrote in 1859, “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, ...