"It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness." Theodore John Kaczynski (1942-) or also known as the Unabomber, is an Americandomestic terrorist and anarchist who moved to a remote cabin in 1971. The cabin lackedelectricity or running water, there he lived as a recluse while learning how to be self-sufficient. He began his bombing campaign in 1978 after witnessing the destruction ofthe wilderness surrounding his cabin.

This text introduces the reader to a sociological perspective on industrial society, aimed at students (both within and outside the social sciences) who seek a general understanding of the social consequences of economic change. Since it assumes that most of its readers will end up working in management, the book focuses upon the business enterprise and social relationships within it, aiming to provide a general background which will lay the foundations for more detailed study of organisational processes and the problems of management.

This book offers a critical and comparative understanding of post-industrial development, highlighting the driving forces and limitations, strategies, sources of funding, tools and technologies for its implementation. It presents the results of research on the formation and functioning of post-industrial development institutions in developed countries and developing countries as integral elements of the national innovation system, and implementation of economic modernization and transformation of business models taking into account contradictions between modern productive forces and getting out of date production relations. This book also explores the widespread impact of new technologies on various areas of modern society, which is often impaired by its conservatism. Comprising contributions from experts across various disciplines including economics, public administration, law, and psychology, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the opportunities and challenges associated with the modern development of society, production, and consumption. It is a book with appeal to scholars and students of economics, business and public administration, interested in post-industrial development in developed and developing countries, and the specifics of implementing strategies for technological improvement in industry and the service sector.

In 1976, Daniel Bell's historical work predicted a vastly different society developing—one that will rely on the “economics of information” rather than the “economics of goods.” Bell argued that the new society would not displace the older one but rather overlie some of the previous layers just as the industrial society did not completely eradicate the agrarian sectors of our society. The post-industrial society's dimensions would include the spread of a knowledge class, the change from goods to services and the role of women. All of these would be dependent on the expansion of services in the economic sector and an increasing dependence on science as the means of innovating and organizing technological change.Bell prophetically stated in The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society that we should expect “… new premises and new powers, new constraints and new questions—with the difference that these are now on a scale that had never been previously imagined in world history.”

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.

Originally published in 1983, the origin of this book is to be found in C. C. Harris’s ‘Changing conceptions of the relation between family and societal form’ (in Scase: Industrial Society: Class, Cleavage and Control). In that article Harris attempted to relate traditional research on the family to recent developments in historical enquiry and Marxist scholarship. The aim of The Family and Industrial Society is to explain the character of the contemporary family by placing it in a wider historical and theoretical perspective. It is therefore directed at the undergraduate student for whom the ‘sociology of the family’, as a topic, has for too long been relatively unrelated to those contemporary developments in sociological thought and practice which inform other substantive areas of sociological work. The late C.C. Harris is perhaps best known for his best-selling introductory text The Family: An Introduction, first published in 1969. This new text was not, however, a straightforward replacement of an earlier book by a more up-to-date volume. Far too much had happened in sociology, in social studies and in family life itself, for a simple updating to make any sense. The Family was primarily a descriptive introduction, and was a presentation, albeit critical, of an orthodoxy. While this new book retains an introductory element based upon The Family’s earlier chapters, the greater part of it is exploratory and assumes a higher level of sophistication and sociological understanding; it is also substantially longer. Dr Harris was singularly well qualified to write a volume of this kind. Not only had he conducted and was conducting empirical research into the family, but his wide theoretical interests rendered him uniquely well placed to contribute to the theoretical development of his field. Few sociologists shared his familiarity with both anthropological and historical work. He was thoroughly familiar with the now unfashionable structural functional approach of which he had always been critical, but was enthusiastic about the potentialities of contemporary developments. The result is a sophisticated text which combines instruction, criticism, interpretation and exploration in one volume; which familiarises the student with the fundamental work of the past (too often neglected) and explores exciting new developments for the future. It also includes the only general discussion of change in the British family since the last edition of Fletcher’s The Family and Marriage in Britain.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.