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The information society is the most developed phase of modern civilization, coming as a result of the information and computer revolution, when information technologies, “intelligent” systems, automation and robotization of all spheres and sectors of the economy and management began to be used, the creation of a single, state-of-the-art integrated communication system that provides every person with any information and knowledge, determines radical changes in the entire system of social relations, thereby ensuring the greatest progress and freedom of the individual, the possibility of its self-realization.
The formation of the information society occurs simultaneously with the formation of the information and economic space, which in turn is a condition and factor for the transformation of information into a socially significant and accessible resource, as well as an environment for large-scale information interactions.
It is advisable to begin considering the features of the formation of the information society in the Russian Federation by identifying the essence of the theory of the information society and its place in the concept of post-industrialism.
The American economist K. Clark was the first to predict the inevitability of the emergence of information civilization.

in the 40s XX century The term “information society” was proposed by F. Machlup and T. Umesao in the early 60s. The theory of the information society was based on an attempt to analyze and generalize the socio-economic transformations generated by the widespread spread of information technologies.
The basic provisions of this theory boil down to the following:

In this context, it is necessary to ask how self-employment is defined and how dependent employment is defined. Conventional definitions are limited. What was intended to protect at-will employees, for example in hauliers, could lead to artists being classified as self-employed. In the worst case scenario, this means that they can no longer be insured through the Social Insurance Fund, and also lose business because their clients cannot pay social insurance contributions for economic reasons.

  • The self-expansion of capital is being replaced by the self-expansion of information, the joint use of which leads to the development of new social relations in which the main thing is the right of use, not ownership;
  • there is an increase in the speed and efficiency of information processing processes along with a decrease in their cost, which has far-reaching socio-economic consequences;
  • Information technology is becoming a determining factor in social change, changing worldviews, values, and social structures.
Based on the traditional definition, the information society arises when:
  1. information turns from a set of information into the main social and economic resource, qualitatively changing the services of labor and capital, the nature of socio-political activity;
  2. the variety of goods and services offered to consumers is constantly growing, and the cost of the latter (primarily financial, professional and design services, health care, education and social services) significantly exceeds the cost of goods;
  3. costs for the acquisition of new information and communication technologies (computers, telecommunications equipment, software, etc.) are higher than for tangible assets.
The main views on the relationship between the concept of post-industrialism and the theory of the information society are as follows. A number of researchers (F. Webster and others) consider the theory of the information society as resulting and including at least two groups of theories. To the first group, F. Webster includes theories that consider the modern information society to be a historically unique phenomenon, that is, qualitatively different from all previous forms of society. The second group of theories, although it recognizes that information is of key importance for the modern world, believes that statements about the revolutionary difference between the current stage of human development and all previous ones have no basis. We agree with Yu.V. Rakhmanova, who believes that despite all the logic of the above theoretical system, one cannot accept such a position of the author. There is no doubt about the influence of the main theories on the concept of the information society, but at the same time it is unlawful to include all these theories in it, since this leads to the “erosion” of the methodological principles of the approach being praised and thereby reduces its heuristic value. The contradictions that exist between different approaches, which, according to F. Webster, are part of a single whole called the “concept of the information society,” will inevitably destroy from within and hinder the development of this theory.
A number of researchers (A. King, B. Schneider, Club of Rome) identify information and post-industrial
society. It cannot be argued that this approach contains any logical contradiction: D. Bell, considering the periodization of history within the framework of the concept of post-industrial society, noted that although certain periods can be identified, there cannot be strict boundaries between them, since “. .. post-industrial trends do not replace previous social forms as “stages” of social evolution. They often coexist, deepening the complexity of society and the nature of social structure." Accordingly, if we single out the information society as a certain historical stage, then we can talk about both its incorporation into post-industrial society and its gradual building on top of it.
V.N. Kostyuk, in his study “The Theory of Evolution and Socio-Economic Processes,” is of the opinion that the future being created today is fundamentally uncertain and is considered as a set of changing alternatives. The post-industrial (information) society is just one of these alternatives. Thus, within the framework of the approach he illuminates, that the process of evolution represents the transition of potential being into being actualized through the exchange of stability, he does not highlight the fundamental differences between post-industrial and information society.
We agree with B.JI's position. Inozemtsev, who proposes to consider the theory of the information society as one of the directions of post-industrialism. One cannot but agree that today, within the framework of the theory of the information society, there are no works on the scale of D. Bell, so it is too early to talk about the emergence of a new global
paradigms in sociology. Theoretical searches are conducted only in the direction of clarifying and detailing the theory of post-industrialism, one of such directions is the theory of the information society.
According to N.N. Moiseev, the information society is “... a society in which the Collective Intelligence (Collective Mind) plays... a role similar to that played by the human mind in his body, that is, it contributes to the development of society and overcoming ever-increasing difficulties. .. and acts for the benefit of all humanity... The Collective Mind objectively becomes a kind of instrument that controls the actions of people.”
These and other definitions emphasize the decisive role of information and knowledge in the process of establishing a new society. The relative importance of information kaT: a factor (resource) of production is growing, there is a shift in aggregate demand towards an increase in the need for information, potential output is increasing due to the constant updating of the technological base of production, and the use of new information technologies.
The most important technological element in the development of the information society is the national telecommunications infrastructure, for which the organization of effective interaction on a global scale is extremely necessary.
Summarizing existing approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “information society”, we can say that it currently means:
  • a new type of society emerging as a result of a global social revolution generated by the explosive development and convergence of information and communication technologies;
  • a knowledge society in which the main condition for the well-being of every person and state becomes
    knowledge gained through unhindered access to information and the ability to work with it;
  • a global society in which the exchange of information will have no temporal, spatial or political boundaries; which, on the one hand, promotes the interpenetration of cultures, and on the other, opens up new opportunities for self-identification for each community;
  • a society where the acquisition, processing, storage, transmission, distribution, and use of knowledge and information play a decisive role, including through interactive interaction, ensuring its constantly improving technical capabilities.
The Concept of the Federal Target Program “Development of Informatization in Russia for the Period up to 2010” gives the following definition: “The information society is a stage in the development of modern civilization, characterized by an increasing role of information and knowledge in the life of society, an increasing share of infocommunications in GDP, the creation of a global information space that ensures effective information interaction between people, their access to global information resources and the satisfaction of their social and personal needs for information products and services."
The information society means a new post-industrial socio-economic organization of society with highly developed information infrastructures that create the possibility of objective use of intellectual resources to ensure the sustainable development of civilization.

This interpretation of this concept seems more meaningful than definitions that boil down to consideration of the purely technological side of the process of informatization of society. The creation and use of new information and telecommunication technologies is not an end in itself. The transition to an information society involves a significant change in the entire economic system of the state, the formation of an information and economic space, fundamentally new social motivations and technological capabilities, the widespread practical use of innovations and knowledge to intensively increase labor productivity and, on this basis, improve the quality of life.
The distinctive features of the information society include:

This applies to visual artists who receive a monthly retainer from their gallery for future sales. There is also the issue of how to qualify the workforce. If normal labor relations decline, it follows that the company's further qualification reaches only a part of the workforce, and it is this part that must be qualified for new work that must be further qualified on its own initiative.

According to the Enquete Commission "The Future of the Media in Business and Society - Germany's Path to the Information Society", the need for further training is one of the basic requirements in the information society. According to the Club of Rome or the Commission for the Future Freedoms of Bavaria and Saxony, some authors also believe that the interconnection of work with civil society, that is, non-profit activities in non-profit organizations, is becoming increasingly important and will win. It is this activity that needs to happen in place of meaningful work.

  • increasing the role of information and knowledge in the life of society;
  • increasing the share of information products and services in GDP;
  • creation of a global information space that ensures effective information interaction between people, access to global information resources and satisfaction of their needs for information products and services."
It is logical to assume that the information society in the development process will experience several stages, the key features in determining which will be the level of equality of citizens' rights to access the main resource - information, the degree of participation in the life of society and self-realization of people.
The increasingly widespread use of information as the main socio-economic resource, leading to the formation of the information society, gives rise to two opposing trends: the movement towards openness, and towards
cover. Consequently, we can talk about an open, closed and mixed information society, combining the features of openness and closure.
An ideal theoretical model would be the model of an open information society, which can be described as “... a society of freely acting, not united in large groups with the same standard of behavior of individuals using a rapidly growing volume of relevant information.” It is a society with a flexible social, economic and political structure in which each individual has access to the information and other resources necessary to freely make his own decisions. As society becomes more open, control over the movement and use of information by the state and certain influential groups is weakened. All relevant information is gradually becoming publicly available. It becomes possible for each individual to have unlimited access to any socially significant information (if this does not violate the rights of other individuals). There is an effect of transparency in the social environment, allowing each citizen to make independent and effective decisions and avoid excessive influence of external (including group) forces on him. The structure of social classes is eroding, and social groups, all of whose members behave in a similar way under the same conditions, are becoming smaller and smaller. The growing openness of society and the increasing degree of individual freedom are not an unconditional blessing. By generating freedom of information and freedom of activity, the openness of society also contributes to the growth of illegal business, corruption of officials, prostitution, drug addiction, banditry and terrorism. The closer an open society is to a primitive one, the more strongly the negative aspects of its openness manifest themselves as one of the sources of the emergence of the opposite tendency towards a closed society and restriction of the individual freedom of citizens. Another source of this tendency is the desire of individuals and social groups to monopolize relevant information and its carriers, turning their possession into a source of non-competitive income.

A completely open society does not exist today, and the prospects for its emergence in the future are vague. In any open society there is a fairly strong tendency towards increasing closedness. This is due to the fact that the benefits of individual freedom and openness become such only at a certain level of well-being and culture of citizens. The elimination of the negative aspects of openness occurs gradually, as social wealth grows and most people fear about its possible loss. The presence of such fears creates the basis for the emergence of a state in which free behavior that does not violate laws and accepted social values ​​is more profitable than violating them, and openness is more profitable than closedness.
World experience shows that each country is moving towards the information society in its own way, determined by the prevailing political, socio-economic and cultural conditions. In developed countries, an effectively functioning market economy has long existed, ensuring a constant increase in information needs and effective demand for information products and services; there is a powerful middle class, which is the main consumer of information services. The economies of these countries have available funds to invest in the development of information and communication infrastructure. Most of them have well-developed infrastructure
production and provision of information products and services to the population, a system of computer education has emerged and the sphere of information and telecommunications services is rapidly expanding. Finally, in these countries there are government strategies and programs for building the information society.
The path of Russia's transition to the information society is determined by its current socio-economic and cultural characteristics, which include:

Thus, the market and non-profit sectors, which are still considered separately, are interrelated. The authors of the Future Issues Commission suggest that "public servants" receive a citizen's allowance to support their livelihood and are not considered unemployed. They do not gain any benefit from labor management.

Art and culture in future work. As can be seen from the above quotation, the Commissioner for the Future of Freistaat-Bavaria and Saxony attaches central importance to the development of art and culture for the development of a knowledge society. Art and culture are an integral part of the information society. However, arts and culture offerings alone are not enough. Particular attention should be paid to cultural education in particular. The Accreditation Commission's final report, "The Future of the Media in Business and Society - Germany's Path to the Information Society", repeatedly stated that lifelong learning is the key to successfully changing the information society and therefore the link to employment.

  • On the one side:
  1. the presence of negative economic trends characteristic of the transition economy of Russia:
  • predominance of the share of the raw materials sector in the national
economics;
  • insufficient level of development of high technology
gical complex;
  • insignificant share of high-tech products in GDP
(0.3% of the world market);
  • low absolute GDP (14th in the world) and low GDP per capita (104th in the world);
  • low level of investment attractiveness
ness;
  • limited domestic demand, etc.;
  1. insufficiently developed information and communication infrastructure;
  2. lack of sufficient effective demand for information products and services;
  3. the absence of a large middle class - the main consumer of information products;
  • on the other side:
  1. growth of information needs of the entire population for socially significant political, economic and social information;
  2. the presence of high scientific, educational and cultural potential created in the USSR and still remaining in Russia;
  3. relatively cheap intellectual labor capable of posing and solving complex scientific and technical problems;
  4. advanced formation of modern communication systems in relation to other sectors of the economy, comparable in growth rates to developed countries;
  5. dynamic development of the Russian market of information and telecommunication technologies, products, services (14-19% per year).
These conditions, in which Russia’s transition to the information society will take about 10-15 years, differ significantly from the conditions characteristic of developed countries, and, therefore, Russia, undoubtedly, taking into account world experience, must choose its own path.
The transition of any country to the information society requires large material costs for the formation and development of the information and economic space, the market for new information technologies, products and services, and the formation of data banks of publicly available information resources. Today, US spending in the information technology sector reaches 10% of GDP, but from these investments the US receives more than 25% of its GDP. Approximately the same volumes are typical for other developed countries.
This path is unacceptable for today's Russia, since significant capital investments will be needed in a fairly short period of time: at least 8% of GDP over 7-10 years, which would allow reaching the average European level of informatization.
Consequently, it is necessary to look for a path focused on the socio-political, economic and cultural characteristics of Russian society and requiring a minimum of capital investment from the state, at least minimal rates of economic growth, the rapid development of commercial structures, and improving the quality of life of the population.

In the current conditions, the direction of cash flows and the rate of economic growth are of particular importance. It is possible to develop exports and import-substituting products, attract investments to develop the raw materials sector and, through these measures, maintain the current level of development, but it is impossible to catch up with developed countries. Due to its low economic level, Russia cannot catch up with developed countries in terms of the level of application and updating of new information technologies, but, in principle, it can overtake by creating something fundamentally new.
For Russia, with its high educational level and so far unspent intellectual potential, the chance of revival is seen in the use of education and science as a long-term competitive advantage. In conditions of rapid evolution, this makes it possible to locally overtake without catching up.
To implement the described direction, it is necessary to provide the Russian scientific and technical potential with an appropriate financial base of both state and non-state funding, for which it is necessary: ​​"

Cultural education is a prerequisite for further education in general. Cultural literacy includes essential reading literacy as well as media competency. It is also important that the images can be deciphered. In modern means of communication, images and signs have become important; deciphering and interpreting these signs is part of the competence of the media. Cultural education encounters something unusual and opens up the show, but it also makes it fun.

And this is certainly one of the best prerequisites for successful educational processes. In order for arts and culture to play an important role, the authors of the Future Issues Commission ask them to promote the arts as well as arts beyond great events. And among them are various cultural institutions in their entire range from music schools through libraries to theaters and museums. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that arts and culture are not just a government-funded sector. Also included are the cultural and media industries.

  • improve the investment climate in the country;
  • stimulate the development of small and medium-sized businesses, allowing newly created enterprises to compete with those who form the basis of the “old economy”;
  • create an infrastructure for supporting fundamental knowledge, consisting of the following links: state support for fundamental science and R&D; availability of an accessible education system; the dominance of imperfect competition, which ensures super-profits from innovation; the functioning of a significant part of private capital to finance discoveries and inventions on a market basis.
In connection with the above, it is advisable to highlight three strategic stages in building the information society in Russia.
  1. Informatization of the entire system of general and special education: from kindergarten to graduation from high school and subsequent forms of training and retraining of specialists; increasing the role of qualifications, professionalism and creativity as the most important characteristics of human potential. Informatization of the education system, focused on the formation of a new generation that meets the conditions of the information society in terms of development and lifestyle, is the main long-term task of the transition to it. Its solution should help young people get prestigious and better-paid jobs, improve their cultural image, leisure and entertainment world, develop their personal abilities to the maximum extent, and prepare themselves for life and work in the information world
In Russia there is a serious groundwork in the field of application of information and telecommunication technologies in higher education, but efforts to computerize schools are completely insufficient, especially in small towns and rural areas. Cultural and information centers, electronic libraries, distance learning and the development of the Russian-language segment of the Internet should play an important role in the informatization of education. It should be emphasized that in all national programs for the movement towards the information society, without exception, the informatization of education occupies a leading place.
  1. The formation and development of the industry and the corresponding infrastructure of information and communication services, including home computerization, aimed at the mass consumer, is one of the main tasks of developing the information environment of society. It is directly related to the interest of us
    education, economic structures and government authorities in the use of information as a resource for social, economic and individual development and in increasing the efficiency of public administration. The development of the information environment is also associated with the personal, including financial, participation of citizens in the formation of the information society. Solving this problem will allow us to raise the level of information culture and computer literacy, ensure the development of the most dynamic sector of the market of information and communication tools, information products and services and support for domestic producers, and will also contribute to the organization of new jobs (telework), home health care, and leisure , e-commerce, information and cultural services, including for people with disabilities, etc.
  2. Providing fundamental Russian science with adequate state and non-state funding.
Progress in these three directions will mean the real transformation of information and knowledge into a genuine resource for socio-economic and spiritual development, strengthening the institutions of civil society, truly ensuring the right of citizens to freely receive, disseminate and use information, and expanding opportunities for personal self-development. Moving along the chosen path will make it possible to create new types of activities, form new types of social relations both in the sphere of business and individual labor, strengthen the intellectual and creative potential of a person, and introduce him to world cultural values. The result will be the formation and development of the Russian information and economic space as an integral element of the information society.

In Russia, over the past 7-10 years, the following factors of socio-economic and scientific and technological development have emerged, which can be considered as economic prerequisites for the transition to an information society:

To develop this sector of the economy, positive frameworks are needed, among others, in tax laws or copyright laws. However, art and culture are not only the ferment of the information society. Arts and culture is a labor market like many others and is therefore, like other segments, affected by the changes in the workforce described above.

In addition, art and culture in general will play an important role in solving the crisis in the functioning of the information society. Here art and culture must be considered in all their complexity, as a disturbing factor in society, as a market segment, as an object of education.

  1. information becomes a public resource for development, the scale of its use can already be compared with traditional resources (energy, raw materials, etc.). Today, the sales volume in Russia of computer technology and information science equipment alone (mainly computers and peripheral devices) reaches more than 1 million units per year and is estimated at approximately $1.5 billion. As world experience shows, the cost of sales of a software product is usually equal to or slightly higher than the cost of equipment, and the cost of personal communications, audio and video equipment is comparable to the cost of computer equipment. These minimum approximate estimates total $3.5 billion. This amount of total costs for information already has macroeconomic significance and characterizes the growth in the use of information resources;
  2. the share of new information products and services in GDP is increasing (in 2000 it amounted to 0.3%, currently - 0.8%, in 2010, according to forecasts, will reach 2%).
  3. In Russia, a domestic market for new information technologies, products and services has formed and is successfully developing. The volume of funds circulating on it, according to various estimates, reaches 4-6.5 billion dollars. in year. According to preliminary forecasts of the Ministry of Economic Development, the implementation of the Federal Target Program "Electronic Russia" will lead to an increase in the volume of the market for new information technologies, products and services by 2-3 times by 2005 and by 5-6 times by 2010. The number of personal computers in the economy will increase 5 times, and home computers - 4 times. Every second computer will have Internet access. All higher education institutions are planned to be connected to the Network by 2005, all schools - by 2010;
  4. In general, the country is rapidly developing telecommunications systems and means, and the number of corporate information networks is increasing. New communications enterprises are actively developing. Businesses that own 87% of traditional infrastructure generate 49% of industry revenue. New operators account for 13% of the market and 51% of revenue;
  5. The number of subscribers to global open networks is constantly growing. The number of regular Internet users in Russia increased in 2001 compared to 2000 by 39% and amounted to 4.3 million people. The total number of Internet users in the Russian Federation in 2001 was about 10 million people;
  6. The national communications network using satellite channels is intensively expanding. The country is successfully installing telephones and the mobile communications market is growing rapidly;
  7. Many sectors of the economy, the banking sector and the sphere of public administration and education have been largely computerized; -
  8. Public opinion is developing an understanding of the relevance of the task of transition to an information society from a political and economic point of view. This is evidenced by the wide public response to the “Concept of State Information Policy,” which can be considered as a policy to ensure the initial stage of Russia’s transition to the information society;
  9. Today Russia is part of the global political and economic community to a degree that it has never been in the past. Literally and figuratively, it is connected to the rest of the world by cable and satellite communication channels, actively used by hundreds of thousands of cell phones and simple phones, faxes, computers, etc.
Russia's further movement towards the information society involves solving the following main tasks:
  • creation and development of the technological base of the information society;
  • development and implementation of political, social, economic, legal, organizational and cultural solutions that ensure movement along the chosen path.
The priority objectives of state policy in terms of the transition to the information society include:
  • development of the Concept of regulatory support for the transition process, which is the basis of government influence on this process, defining the main directions and tasks of improving the system of information legislation, including in the field of copyright and related rights and intellectual property protection;
  • development of existing and creation of new network structures and technologies built on the basis of international experience and standards;
  • organization and deployment of broad socio-political propaganda support for the process of transition to the information society;
  • selection of modern information and communication technologies (computer training programs, satellite and cable television, multimedia, etc.) that are adequate to educational technologies and educational processes;
  • creation of specialized publicly available information resources (databases and data banks, electronic libraries, etc.), including non-profit ones, focused on solving educational problems;
  • organization of a network of specialized educational centers of regional and city subordination, as well as training and retraining centers for teachers and teachers, equipped with modern information technology.
In the field of formation and development of the information and communication services industry, including those aimed at the mass consumer, the following is necessary:
  • development of cheap specialized devices for network interaction of users with information systems, publicly accessible terminals for information, reference and advisory systems for social purposes, as well as development of systems for software, content and service support for home computerization;
  • creation of economic conditions that facilitate the integration of state and non-state structures in the development and development of the market of information and communication services for the population.
In the field of providing the information services sector with spiritual content that meets Russian cultural and historical traditions, the following tasks must be solved:
  • development of cheap means of computerization of public libraries, museums, archives and other cultural institutions, widespread introduction of electronic printing tools into the practice of book publishing and mass printing;
  • formation of publicly accessible databases and data banks in the field of humanities and social sciences;
  • creation of a wide network of cultural, information and information and entertainment centers in the regions, large and small cities, including in neighboring countries, as well as the development of a powerful Russian-language sector on the Internet, technological support for the websites of cultural and information centers.
In the context of globalization, increasing openness and transparency of all social systems, the transition to information

educational society is one of the priority areas for the development of Russian society.
One of the conditions for Russia's transition to an information society is the formation of a developed information and economic space and its integration into the global information space, which should ensure stable economic growth, improving the quality of life of the population and the socio-political stability of society and the state.

And of course this also applies to changes that affect the cultural sector itself. New information and communication technologies also greatly influence the production, use and mediation of culture. Workplace culture is in turmoil.

Thus, boundaries between different sectors are abolished. Artists, scientists and technicians work together to develop new technical forms. Very complex methods require the cooperation of people with varying abilities and training. This is one of the opportunities of the information society; it helps to break the established division of disciplines. For example, the last year with open eyes and eyes about the Frankfurt Book Fair has not only heard the loud whispers of concentration processes in the publishing industry.


The author of the term “information society” is considered to be the American economist F. Machlup, who first used it in his work “Production and Application of Knowledge in the USA.” Independently, this definition was also proposed by the Japanese scientist T. Umesao. In philosophical and sociological studies, the concept of “information society” was used to designate a qualitatively new type of society, in which activities related to the production, consumption, transmission and storage of information predominate. The information society was considered as one of the stages of the post-industrial one or as an independent stage of social development following it. In the early 90s, these definitions were used as synonyms.
In 1962, Marshall McLuhan introduced the concept of “electronic society” as a special stage in the development of modern society, within which electronic means of communication begin to play a leading role. Communication technologies are considered by the Canadian researcher as a key factor determining the emergence of socio-economic systems. In his famous work “The Guttenberg Galaxy,” M. McLuhan points out the dependence between the creation of the printing press, which resulted in the emergence of a new type of communication strategies, which, in turn, irreversibly influenced the development and formation of the political, economic, social structure of industrial society and its institutions. Because it was precisely in the conditions of mass dissemination of the printed word that opportunities arose for the development of entrepreneurship (based on private property) and the democratization of society on the basis of suffrage.
McLuhan's attention was concentrated on audiovisual media, primarily television, which
which acted as a representative of the entire global electronic reality. Television, according to McLuhan, is gradually destroying print culture, thus suppressing previous cultural forms. As an essential element of the global information network, television actually turns the world into a “global village.” McLuhan formulated two fundamental characteristics of television. The first of them is associated with the mosaic, fragmented structure of a television information product, which is a set of visual and auditory messages devoid of strict internal logical connections. Thus, events of different content, scale, discourse, time and place of action are combined in a short news program. The second characteristic reflects the cumulative effect, the mutual reinforcement of disparate messages in the perceiving consciousness of the recipient, which combines individual signals into a kind of semantic unity.
In foreign literature of the late 70-80s of the twentieth century, the problems of the information society were actively discussed. T. Stoneier argued that information is a special type of resource, similar to capital: capable of accumulation, transmission, and storage for subsequent sale. Within a post-industrial society, national information resources represent the largest potential source of wealth.
In parallel with the research of American authors, Japanese scientists presented their concepts. Among them is the work of I. Masuda “The Information Society as a Post-Industrial Society”, in which he described the basic principles and characteristics of the advancing society. Its foundation will be, according to Masuda, computer technology designed to replace or significantly enhance human mental work. The information technology revolution will act as a new production force, the consequences of which will be expressed in the form of mass production of high-quality cognitive information and new technologies. The most important sector of the economy in the new society will be intellectual production, and new technologies
Communication technologies will ensure proper storage and distribution of new products.
In the global information society, from the point of view of I. Masuda, a serious transformation of values ​​will occur: classes will disappear, conflicts will be reduced to a minimum. The result will be a society of harmony with a small government that will not require a bloated state apparatus. In contrast to an industrial society aimed at the production and consumption of goods, according to Masuda, the main value of an information society will be time.
The famous futurist Alvin Toffler made his contribution to the development of the ideas of post-industrialism and the information society. The author of the “wave” concept of social development, set out in the book “The Third Wave,” offers his own scheme for the evolution of forms of social structure, highlighting three “waves” in the history of civilization: agricultural (until the 18th century), industrial (until the 1950s) and post-1950s. - or super-industrial (starting from the second half of the twentieth century). Toffler describes the process of the withering away of industrial civilization in terms of the “technosphere”, “sociosphere”, “information” and “power sphere”, pointing to the fundamental changes currently experiencing in all spheres. As an information society, Toffler considers a society of the third wave, where information becomes the main type of property, while previously it was land (agrarian wave) and means of production (industrial). The transition to information ownership represents a revolutionary explosion because it is the first property that is intangible, intangible, and potentially infinite.
The social-class basis of the information society, according to
O. Toffler, will constitute a “cognitariat,” which is a social group that actively uses knowledge rather than physical labor. The development of computer technology and means of communication will lead, according to Toffler, to a change in the structure of employment, and in combination with the increasing intellectualization of work - to the emergence of so-called “electronic cottages”, which will allow work to be transferred from the office to the employee’s home. In addition to saving time and reducing transportation costs, the cost of providing centralized workplaces, the introduction of “electronic cottages” will
contribute, according to Toffler, to strengthening the family and will strengthen trends towards reviving the attractiveness of small towns and village life.
Within the framework of the stage approach, which assumes the sequential movement of society from one phase to another, theorists of the information society identify one or another stage of social development, using the dominant sector of the economy as a basic criterion. Thus, in an agrarian society, the economy was based on agriculture, economic activity was directed towards food production, and the main resource was land. Industry became the dominant economic sector of industrial society; production activity was associated with the production of goods; capital was considered the most significant resource. The information society is based on the production and use of information for the development and effective existence of other forms of production; knowledge serves as a resource.
In the concept of Professor J. Martin, the information society is understood, first of all, as a “developed post-industrial society” that arose in the West. The researcher made an attempt to identify and formulate the main characteristics of the information society according to several criteria. The technological criterion assumes that information technology, widely used in all social spheres, structures, organizations, in the business environment and in everyday life, is becoming a key factor in the development of society. The social criterion is associated with the fact that new standards for the production and consumption of information provoke changes in the quality of life, leading to the formation of the so-called “information consciousness,” the existence of which is possible only if there is free and wide access to information. The economic criterion reflects the most important role of information in a modern economy. Information becomes a resource, a product, a service, increases employment and produces added value of products and services. The political criterion indicates the specifics of the political process, which in the conditions of the information society
characterized by the ever-increasing participation of citizens in government processes, since information technologies facilitate the possibility of communication with government officials and public control over their activities. Martin believes that in the information society, the emergence of consensus between social groups and classes is ensured to a greater extent. Finally, based on the cultural criterion, Martin characterizes the information society as a society that recognizes the cultural value of information, promoting the formation of information values ​​that ensure the further development of both society as a whole and the individual in particular.
J. Martin notes that when speaking about the information society, it should not be taken in a literal sense, but rather considered as a guideline, a trend of change in modern Western society. From his point of view, in general, this model is oriented towards the future, but in developed capitalist countries it is already possible to name a number of changes caused by information technology, which to a certain extent confirm the concept of the information society.
Among these changes, Martin names such as: structural changes in the economy, especially in the distribution of labor; increased awareness of the importance of information; growing awareness of the need for computer literacy; widespread use of information technology; government support for the development of computer microelectronic technology and telecommunications.
Ultimately, Martin offers the following understanding of the information society: it is a society whose most important indicators and prospects are directly related to the effective use of information. Standards of quality and standard of living, systems of production and consumption, education and leisure, social security, management and interaction of the main components of the social structure as a whole in a society of this type are closely dependent on the development of the information and cognitive components.

In 1996, the first book in Manuel Castells’ trilogy “The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture” was published. In his truly large-scale work, the scientist analyzed in detail the processes of social development throughout the twentieth century and formulated the concept of information capitalism, which reveals the main features of the modern information society (see the subsection “Information capitalism of Manuel Castells”).
In 1999, Don Tapscott published the book “Electronic Digital Society: The Pros and Cons of Networked Intelligence,” in which he presented his attempt to comprehend the global nature of the changes taking place in humanity. Tapscott notes that the area currently undergoing the most serious modernization is education. The traditional educational system no longer provides graduates with long-term job security, since the rapid pace of updating knowledge requires constant retraining. In the electronic society, the very idea of ​​learning, the connections between learning and work and everyday life is being revised: the information society is based on mental work, therefore, work is increasingly intertwined with study, which turns into a lifelong occupation. Tapscott identifies the key features of the new society: knowledge orientation, digital representation of objects, virtualization of production, innovative nature, integration, convergence, elimination of intermediaries, transformation of manufacturer-consumer relations, dynamism, globalization and a number of others.
Domestic experts began to actively address the problems of the post-industrial/information society only in the last decades of the twentieth century. Soviet researchers, from the standpoint of the formational approach, criticized the concepts of post-industrial society and were not able to correlate Western developments with the realities of life in the Soviet state. However, in the late 80s - early 90s of the last century, works by domestic authors began to appear, devoted to the problems of the formation of a global information society and the inclusion of Russia in this process.

Equally unmistakable were the opportunities for rationalization arising from the use of new technologies in the printing sector. Electronic media did not push the book to print. But they radically change it. In this case, everything can be managed electronically from the order by retrieving the text from the digital library, printing, linking and finally delivering to the customer. People, few people, are needed only to control the production process.

However, they also make clear that developers and providers of electronic media have realized that they have nothing to sell without content. The next few years will show whether "software books" are a fad or can dominate the competitive book market.

A. I. Rakitov noted that the transition to a new information society becomes possible when social activity is aimed, first of all, at the production of services and knowledge. The main task of the information society is related to ensuring the right and opportunity of a citizen, regardless of the time and location of his location, to obtain the information he needs.
Rakitov describes the information society in accordance with the following characteristics: the presence of any citizen, group of persons, social organization of a realizable opportunity at any time and anywhere in the country to gain access to the information necessary to solve individually or socially significant problems; production and operation in free access mode of modern information technologies, the use of which can be carried out by any individual, group or organization; the presence of a developed infrastructure that allows for the creation and storage of national information resources, which, in turn, are effectively used to maintain an appropriate level of scientific, technical, technological and generally social progress; acceleration of automation and computerization of technological and production processes, control systems as a whole; transformation of basic social structures, as a result of which the service sector develops and the profiles of information activities expand.
Well-known domestic experts on the problems of the information society G. L. Smolyan and D. S. Chereshkin, analyzing the essence and specifics of the new stage of social development, including in relation to Russian reality, identified a number of characteristics of the information society. Researchers consider the most important characteristics to be: the creation of a unified information space, the intensification of processes of information and economic integration of states; the emergence and, in the future, the predominance in the economies of countries of new technological structures, the essence of which is to ensure mass production and use of network information, communication, and computer technologies; improving the level of education through
the use in educational processes of information exchange systems operating at various levels - from regional to international; increasing requirements for the qualifications, professionalism and creative potential of employees.
Among the many different approaches, concepts and theories that describe the phenomenon of the information society, we can highlight certain universal characteristics that are one way or another recognized by almost all researchers. So, the global information society most often refers to a new type of society, the foundation of which is the accelerated and inclusive development, dissemination and convergence of information and communication technologies. This is a knowledge society, which assumes a special role for the cognitive component, in which the main competitive advantage and the key to success are knowledge and skills that allow one to obtain and use information in conditions of secured and guaranteed unhindered access to it. The new information society is global in nature, in which the exchange of information is not limited by time, space or political barriers. Finally - and in this scientists see the humanistic orientation of the information society - it promotes the interpenetration of cultures, and also provides individuals, groups, and communities with new opportunities for self-realization.
At the same time, it should be noted that not all arguments of supporters of the concepts of post-industrial and information societies have met and are met with undeniable approval. A skeptical attitude towards the information society as a new social reality is contained in the studies of G. Schiller, M. Allett, D. Harvey, E. Giddens, J. Habermas. Representatives of this group agree that information plays a key role in modern society, but its forms and functions are well known, obey established principles and do not lead to qualitative changes in social relations. A serious critical analysis of ideas, approaches and concepts describing a new type of society,

It will also prove the impact of this technology on book printing and the book trade. It is now clear that the growth in the labor market arising from the need for content cannot compensate for the resulting job losses in manufacturing. This also applies to the rather traditional media of radio and television. Here, of course, the expansion of this market also leads to increased profits. On the one hand, they are characterized by intermittent employment; on the other hand, the use of digital technology, which also means job loss.

F. Webster was the author, who outlined the conceptual and methodological shortcomings of the most recognized theories of the information society (see the subsection “Frank Webster: a critical analysis of the theories of the information society”).

stage in the development of humanity when physical labor as the basis of an industrial society gives way to information and knowledge [Kalnoy I.I. Philosophy: Textbook. - Simferopol: Business-Inform, 2002. - P. 328].

Great definition

Incomplete definition ↓

INFORMATION SOCIETY

a term used to denote the current state of industrialized countries, associated with the new role of information in all aspects of their life, a qualitatively new level (scope) of production, processing and dissemination of information.

In the last third of the twentieth century, a new technological revolution, universal computerization, informatization of society, and intellectualization of the economy create a fundamentally new social situation.

Rethinking of social changes, approaches to changing the methodological paradigm in the theory of society began to be observed in the late 60s - early 70s. Theories of the information society are divided into two groups. One group includes theories adjacent to the concepts of post-industrialism and directly coming from them. The names of D. Bell, A. Touraine and others are associated with these theories. They represent, as it were, the first stage in the development of the theory of the information society.

The second group is the conceptual schemes of O. Toffler, R. Dahrendorf, F. Ferraroti, as well as the adjusted theory of D. Bell.

The concept of the information society notes that such a society represents a special stage in historical development. There are two approaches that interpret the historical place of the information society differently. The first approach, expressed by J. Habermas and E. Giddens, considers the information society as a phase of industrial society. The second approach, voiced by D. Bell and O. Toffler, fixes the information society as a completely new stage following the industrial society (the second wave, according to Toffler).

In connection with the expansion of the sphere of information activity, professional qualifications, the educational structure of society, and the nature of work are changing. The role and functions of the most important element of the productive forces - man - are changing; intellectual and creative work is replacing the work of the individual directly involved in the production process. In the information society, the production of services comes first.

In the services market, the main thing is labor aimed at receiving, processing, storing, transforming and using information. Creativity takes on primary importance in motivating work activity. This is a huge army of labor: the share of those whose activities are associated with creative work is approaching half of the entire labor force in industrialized countries. The USA and Japan have advanced even more in these indicators. If in Africa 2/3 of the population is engaged in agricultural production, then in the USA less than 3% of the active population is engaged in this. US industrial manufacturing employs 17%, and information technology employs 80%.

If Parsons considered society as a network of interchanges of four main subsystems - economic, political, legal, moral and ideological (model maintenance subsystem), then in the information society two important and independent subsystems are added to them - telecommunications and educational.

The telecommunications subsystem cannot be considered only as a technical component of the economy; it goes far beyond its role and significance in technology. Telecommunications technology enhances the breakthrough into democratic social order because it allows a person to have the status of a “direct member” of society without any kind of intermediary in the form of any groups, ideologies or symbolic cultural systems.

Also, education becomes an important, indeed, a dominant subsystem of society. This is a strategic resource in modern conditions of functioning of state and political structures.

The "information explosion" caused changes in the field of spiritual production and culture. Information becomes a product and one of the main values ​​of society. This could not but affect changes in property relations. American scientists R. Coase and A. Alchyan, the founders of the new theory of property rights, studied the phenomenon of increasing complexity of property relations. Property relations are interpreted not as a relationship between a person and a thing, but as a relationship between people with their rights to use a certain type of resource. In a classical firm, this resource is capital; in new areas of business activity, the greatest influence is enjoyed by the one who has the right to use information, in the innovation field and in the field of professional services - the right to intelligence.

In a modern economy characterized by knowledge intensity, continuous structural changes, and high dynamism, the role of intellectual property in social development is increasing.

Great definition

Incomplete definition ↓

This is a society emerging in the post-industrial phase of the development of civilization, which is characterized by the comprehensive informatization of social structures and is replacing the post-industrial one.

In the “social framework of the information society” by D. Bell, the development of the concept of information technology. expresses the transition from the post-industrial dominance of the service sector over the manufacturing sector to the dominance of the information services sector. In this sense, the concept of I. o. reflects new aspects of the development of post-industrial society and is its additional characteristic (see "Post-industrial society").

On the other hand, I. o. can be understood as an independent stage in the historical development of civilization, following post-industrial society and characterized primarily by the production of information, the level of awareness of the population and the development of education. In addition, post-industrial society itself can be understood as the first stage of i.o. In this sense, the analysis of problems of I. o. is associated with the consideration of post-industrial society as the first in the history of industrial economics.

To study possible ways of development of I. o. In Western socio-philosophical theories, the concept of a post-information society is introduced (Hunt’s work “The Post-Information Society”), that is, a theoretical consideration of the problems of information technology. has its further development in the concept of a post-information society: information-formation, information-formation, post-information society. Establishing the similarity of the DNA genetic information system, the genetic structures of the biosphere and the information structures of the social organization of the noosphere allowed Baudrillard to develop the concept of a post-information society, the “virtual era” of which is replacing the bygone “oral”, “written” and “printing societies” of McLuhan. The concept of a post-information society reflects such a change in the sphere of information services as the determining basis of information technology, on which the former rational mechanism for the production of information is replaced by the probabilistic chaos of excess social information. In informational “virtual reality,” the formation of “redundant” social information structures of the information system takes place: in it, redundancy of social information only means a lack of information about which part of it is redundant. As an ideology or hegemony of information structures, Baudrillard’s “virtual reality” becomes the reality of I. o. In this regard, the concept of I. o. reflects, on the one hand, the method of dissemination of information structures and, on the other hand, the level of informatization and computerization of society.

The emergence of the concept of I. o. is closely related to the development of computer science and cybernetics in the works of N. Wiener, information theory of management and information theory of value. The cost of human activity and its results is determined not only and not so much by labor costs, but by embodied information, which becomes a source of added value. In this sense, the concept of I. o. expresses a rethinking of information and its role as a quantitative characteristic for the qualitative analysis of social development. A certain level of social information, in addition to quantitative characteristics, allows us to reflect certain qualitative aspects of the development of society. The information theory of value characterizes not only the amount of information embodied in the results of production activities, but also the level of development of information production as the basis for the development of information technology. - a certain stage of development of society.

The concept of I. o. characterizes in a certain way changes in worldview associated with a departure from the classical picture of the world. In this aspect of the concept of I. o. reflects a consistent change in the basis of society - from the natural world of traditional society to the artificial, created world (industrial - see "Industrial Society" - and post-industrial society) and to the world of social information. Cyberspace, in which only intellectual programmers now work, becomes the information space for the socio-cultural and, consequently, socio-economic development of information technology. This is the basis for the production of information, which is the backbone of the structures of the information system, in contrast to the industrial production of an industrial society. Education and science determine the level of information production and the degree of development of information technology.

Problems of functioning of the structures of the I. o. are closely related to the problems of artificial intelligence (for example, Intel microprocessors or the development of text editors that correct human errors in computer typing). The concept of intellectual and information capital, introduced by Bourdieu, is important for the concept of information technology. For example, the intellectual property of Bill Gates, the creator and ideological inspirer of Microsoft (the leader of the global software market for the computer industry), whose property is estimated at many billions of dollars, largely contributed to the creation of a new type of property and copyright for software products, the formation of an international intellectual property copyright systems.

Information interchange permeates the structure of the spiritual culture of the world, which is no longer based so much on the classical media of the “Gutenberg Era” in McLuhan’s understanding, but on innovative electronic media. The latter can now rightfully include the “Internet”: both in terms of the number of audiences around the globe and in terms of the volume of information services, the “Internet” is a global mass media.

The role of information as a strategic resource increases with the development of electronic media that manipulate the masses and public opinion. With the development of audiovisual technology, global computer networks (such as Redcom or the Internet - with a multi-million audience in all developed countries, with e-mail, various magazines, conferences, message boards, etc. within the Internet information network), accumulating information, access to it characterizes the possibilities of its use in a complex structure of power. An example of how a global information structure is formed can be the system of interrelations within UNESCO, global media such as Eurovision, or the US National Information Infrastructure.

Social characteristics of development of I. o. are the awareness of its various social groups, the availability of information, the efficiency of mass media services and their feedback capabilities, the level of education, the intellectual capabilities of society, primarily in information production.

Great definition

Incomplete definition ↓

In the historical development of society, one can distinguish information revolutions, after which humanity rose to a new level and acquired new properties. So the first happened when writing appeared, the second happened after the invention of printing, the third gave electricity to humanity, and the fourth - a computer. At each stage, compared to the previous one, the flow of information in society increased sharply.

The advent of computers made it possible to process information much more efficiently and quickly. Later, the Internet made information exchange incredibly fast.

Technologies for processing various data began to appear, methods for extracting and organizing knowledge began to be developed. All this could not but affect society. Knowledge has become a value, the need for which is increasing all the time.

Today's human society is an information society, the main features of which are the use of information in almost all spheres of life and automation of production.

In the information society, changes occur not only in production, but also in the worldview of people. The share of mental work is increasing; it is becoming important for people to satisfy their informational and creative needs, and not just material ones.

The development of the information society will lead to the fact that the majority of the population will be busy receiving, storing, processing and converting information. While material production will be entrusted to robots.

There are a number of dangers in modern society. These include information stress caused by an information avalanche. Not every person is able to skillfully navigate the flow of data, cut off information garbage and identify knowledge as the highest form of information. The media has a strong influence on human consciousness. With the development of various types of electronic devices, there is a threat to privacy.

The information society predisposes to the emergence of a unified civilization in which every person will have access to all information resources.

The information society is characterized by the following main features:

    The majority of workers are employed in the field of information production and information services.

    Technical, technological and legal capabilities are provided for any member of society to access virtually any data they need.

    Information is becoming the most important strategic resource of society and occupies a key place in the economy, education and culture.

If each previous stage of human development lasted about three centuries, then scientists predict that the information stage will last much less. Its lifespan will probably be limited to a hundred years. Many believe that already in the 21st century the transition to a post-information society will begin.

Thus, the information society is a society whose structures, technical base and human potential are adapted to transform knowledge into an information resource and process the latter from passive forms (books, articles) into active ones (models, algorithms, programs, projects). Of particular importance is the creation of knowledge bases (KB), which can be implemented through the qualitative transformation of traditional databases (DBs) created by early generations of computers.

1. Concept, prerequisites for the emergence and theory of the information society

2. Features of the information society and its contradictions.

Since the mid-60s, Western sociologists and social philosophers (D. Bell, D. Riesman, O. Toffler, A. Touraine, etc.) have been actively discussing the issue of the entry of the most developed countries into a qualitatively different stage of social development, characterized by them as a “post-industrial” or “information” society. A number of factors contributed to these conversations.

Firstly, everyone then was impressed by the rapid development of science and technology, as mentioned above.

Secondly, in the mid-70s there was a global energy crisis. Oil-producing countries did not want to sell the contents of their subsoil to the West for next to nothing and raised prices. As a result, Western industry is faced with the urgent need to implement energy-efficient solutions in production and construction, as well as to increase product profitability. Having overcome this crisis, Western countries have entered a new technological stage.

Thirdly, just in the early 70s, the old financial system (it was called Bretton Woods) collapsed. As a result of the introduction of floating exchange rates, the dollar began to prevail in all international payments and began to play the role of world money. Thus, the West received almost limitless opportunities for expansion. And for any expansion that combines economic and political aspects, appropriate ideological support is needed.

Well, fourthly, by this time the USSR had so lost its development momentum that no opposition was expected on its part.

Information society is a term used to designate the current state of industrialized countries, associated with the new role of information in all aspects of their life, a qualitatively new level (scope) of production, processing and dissemination of information.

Information society - a society in which the majority of workers are engaged in the production, storage, processing and sale of information, especially its highest form - knowledge

There are two approaches that interpret the historical place of the information society differently. The first approach, expressed by Jürgen Habermas, E. Giddens, considers the information society as a phase of industrial society.

The second approach, voiced by D. Bell and Alvin Toffler, fixes the information society as a completely new stage following the industrial society (the second wave, according to Toffler).

Prerequisites for the formation of the information society:


Features of the information society:

Intellectual and creative labor displaces the labor of the individual directly involved in the production process;

Development of the service sector;

The main thing becomes work aimed at receiving, processing, storing, transforming and using information.

Creativity takes on primary importance in motivating work activity;

Creation of new needs and values, new economic sectors and market segments.

Changes in employment;

The problem of the information crisis has been solved, i.e. the contradiction between the information avalanche and information hunger is resolved;

The priority of information compared to other resources is ensured;

The main form of development will be the information economy;

The basis of society will be the automated generation, storage, processing and use of knowledge using the latest information technology and technology;

Information technology will become global in nature, covering all areas of human social activity;

The information unity of the entire human civilization is being formed;

With the help of computer science, every person has free access to the information resources of the entire civilization;

Humanistic principles of social management and environmental impact have been implemented.

In addition to the positive aspects, dangerous trends are also predicted:

  • the increasing influence of the media on society;
  • information technology can destroy the privacy of people and organizations;
  • there is a problem of selecting high-quality and reliable information;
  • many people will find it difficult to adapt to the information society environment. There is a danger of a gap between the "information elite" (people involved in the development of information technologies) and consumers.

Theories of the information society:

Jurgen Habermas German philosopher and sociologist

According to Professor W. Martin, the information society is understood as a “developed post-industrial society” that arose primarily in the West. In his opinion, it is no coincidence that the information society is establishing itself primarily in those countries - Japan, the USA and Western Europe - in which a post-industrial society was formed in the 60s and 70s.

William Martin made an attempt to identify and formulate the main characteristics of the information society according to the following criteria.

  • Technological: the key factor is information technology, which is widely used in production, institutions, the education system and in everyday life.
  • Social: information acts as an important stimulator of changes in the quality of life, “information consciousness” is formed and established with wide access to information.
  • Economic: Information is a key factor in the economy as a resource, service, commodity, source of added value and employment.
  • Political: freedom of information leading to a political process characterized by increasing participation and consensus among different classes and social strata of the population.
  • Cultural: recognition of the cultural value of information by promoting the establishment of information values ​​in the interests of the development of the individual and society as a whole.

At the same time, Martin especially emphasizes the idea that communication is “a key element of the information society.”

D. Bell: Defines the information society through the changes taking place in real society

A new social order based on telecommunications

The revolution in the organization and processing of information and knowledge, in which the computer plays a central role, is unfolding simultaneously with the emergence of a post-industrial society.

Three aspects of post-industrial society are particularly important for understanding the telecommunications revolution:

1) transition from an industrial to a service society;

2) the critical importance of codified theoretical knowledge for the implementation of technological innovation;

3) transformation of the new “intelligent technology” into a key tool for system analysis and decision-making theory.”

Alvin Toffler “The Third Wave” is an American sociologist and futurologist, he studied in detail the response of society to this phenomenon and the changes occurring in society

According to Toffler, the development of science and technology occurs in spurts, or more precisely, in waves. Since the mid-50s, industrial production began to acquire new features. In many areas of technology, a variety of types of equipment, product samples, and types of services are increasingly being discovered. The specialization of labor is becoming increasingly fragmented. Organizational forms of management are expanding. The volume of publications is increasing. According to the scientist, all this led to extreme fragmentation of economic indicators, which led to the emergence of computer science.

Studying the information age worker, Toffler notes that he is more independent, more resourceful, that he is no longer an appendage of a machine. However, unemployment is also inherent in the information age, and the problem of unemployment becomes not so much a quantitative problem as a qualitative one. It's no longer just a matter of how many jobs there are, but what types of jobs are, where, when, and who can fill them. Today's economy is extremely dynamic, industries that are experiencing depression coexist next to prosperous ones, and this makes it difficult to solve the problem of unemployment. And unemployment itself is now more diverse in its origin.

His main works advocate the thesis that humanity is moving to a new technological revolution, that is, the first wave (agrarian civilization) and the second (industrial civilization) are being replaced by a new one, leading to the creation of a super-industrial civilization.

The “third wave” brings with it a truly new way of life based on diversified, renewable energy sources; on production methods that render most factory assembly lines obsolete; on some new (“non-nuclear”) family; at a new institute that could be called an “electronic cottage”; on the radically transformed schools and corporations of the future. The emerging civilization brings with it a new code of conduct and takes us beyond the concentration of energy, money and power.”

T. Stoneier INFORMATION WEALTH: PROFILE OF POST-INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY

There are three main ways in which a country can increase its national wealth: 1) continuous accumulation of capital, 2) military conquests and territorial increments, 3) the use of new technology that converts “non-resources” into resources. Due to the high level of technology development in the post-industrial economy, the conversion of non-resources into resources has become the main principle of creating new wealth. information exchange leads to cooperation. Information is therefore a resource that can be shared without regret.

A. Touraine: French sociologist

“...the concept of a post-industrial society... - here investments are made at a different level than in an industrial society, that is, in the production of means of production. The organization of labor affects only the relations of workers among themselves, and therefore the level at which production operates. Post-industrial society operates more globally at the management level, that is, in the production mechanism as a whole. This action takes two main forms. Firstly, it is innovation, that is, the ability to produce new products, in particular as a result of investments in science and technology; secondly, management itself, that is, the ability to use complex information and communication systems.

It is important to recognize that a post-industrial society is one in which all elements of the economic system are affected by the actions of society on itself. These actions do not always take the form of conscious will embodied in an individual or even a group of people. This is why such a society should be called a programmable society, a designation that clearly indicates its ability to create models for managing production, organization, distribution and consumption; Therefore, this kind of society appears at the operational level not as a result of natural laws or specific cultural characteristics, but rather as the result of production, through the action of society on itself, its own systems of social action.”