Post-Industrial Lives

The interesting contribution of this book is not just confined to capturing the role changes that a knowledge based society characterizing post-industrialism demands, but that it is able to bring about a fusion of micro individual and the macro societal role relationships..... This book makes interesting and useful reading for the serious management practitioner interested in gaining a grasp of the role alterations that are taking place in his own work domain, and comprehend its implications. The contribution of this work to sociological theory is in making predictions about the social changes which can come up with the transformation to a knowledge based society. --Vikalpa "The interesting contribution of this book is not just confined to capturing the role changes that a knowledge based society characterizing post-industrialism demands, but that it is able to bring about a fusion of micro individual and the macro societal role relationships. This book, due to its rigour, is essentially academic oriented. But the writing style is such that it can also make interesting and useful reading for the serious management practitioner interested in gaining a grasp of the role alterations that are taking place in his own work domain, and comprehend its implications." --Unnikrishnan K. Nair in Vikalpa The shift from an industrial to a post-industrial society has been documented extensively, as has its impact on the macro-level institutions of society--government, the workplace, and the economy. But how has post-industrial life impacted the individual and relationships between individuals? Hage and Powers examine this intriguing question by linking global changes in work patterns, information flow and knowledge to the practice of everyday life. They conclude that the complexities of society require a different kind of people, those with complex selves and creative minds, capable of confronting the challenges of the forthcoming century. Creativity, flexibility, and emotional astuteness will be the buzzwords of the future, as well as personality traits that will enable people to successfully adapt to the ever-changing swirl of workplace, familial, personal, and leisure roles. Based on the tenets of social theory, the authors present a window into the future and a plan for personal and interpersonal action. Their insights will shed light for social psychologists, social theorists, futurologists, organizational theorists, network analysts, and communication researchers. "It is stimulating to encounter a work of such intellectual audacity that is so solidly buttressed by sound scholarship and respect for evidence. The core argument, which is based heavily on symbolic interactionist theory, has the ring of truth. This is a thoroughly remarkable book--broad in scope, significant in its implications, and, better than any I know, making eminently good sense of the eddying social currents and bewildering social changes that characterize contemporary society....