IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v30y2016i2p366-376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The post-industrial society: from utopia to ideology

Author

Listed:
  • Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt

Abstract

Theories of post-industrial society have since their earliest formulations had a questionable relation to actual processes of social change. This article explores why they nonetheless continue to hold influence. Drawing on Mannheim, it argues that theories of post-industrial society were originally formulated as utopia – hopeful speculations about the future. When their core concepts are used to describe present conditions, however, they take on the role of ideology, in Mannheim’s sense of this term. The ideology of post-industrial society represents a specific world view in relation to work, knowledge and education. It elevates and celebrates ‘knowledge work’ and renders invisible existing forms of industry and workers’ knowledge necessary for practical work. When the present is viewed through the lens of these theories, practical work is cast as the work of yesterday and the people who do it as yesterday’s people.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt, 2016. "The post-industrial society: from utopia to ideology," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(2), pages 366-376, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:30:y:2016:i:2:p:366-376
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017015577911
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017015577911
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017015577911?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Green, Francis, 2013. "Skills and Skilled Work: An Economic and Social Analysis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199642854.
    2. Paul Thompson & Chris Warhurst & George Callaghan, 2001. "Ignorant Theory and Knowledgeable Workers: Interrogating the Connections between Knowledge, Skills and Services," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7), pages 923-942, November.
    3. Brown, Phillip & Lauder, Hugh & Ashton, David, 2011. "The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs, and Incomes," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199731688.
    4. Ewart Keep & Ken Mayhew, 2010. "Moving beyond skills as a social and economic panacea," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(3), pages 565-577, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anahid Roux-Rosier & Ricardo Azambuja & Gazi Islam, 2018. "Alternative visions : permaculture as imaginaries of the anthropocene," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01958956, HAL.
    2. Anahid Roux-Rosier & Ricardo Azambuja & Gazi Islam, 2018. "Alternative visions : permaculture as imaginaries of the anthropocene," Post-Print halshs-01958956, HAL.
    3. Natalia N. Telnova & Svyatoslav Serikov & Nelli A. Savelyeva & Tatiana Litvinova & Alexander Tenishchev, 2016. "Role of Business Administration in the Process of Formation of Post-Industrial Economy," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 294-301.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Langthaler, Margarita, 2015. "The transfer of the Austrian dual system of vocational education to transition and developing countries: An analysis from a developmental perspective," Working Papers 53, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    2. Francis Green & Alan Felstead & Duncan Gallie & Hande Inanc & Nick Jewson, 2016. "The Declining Volume of Workers’ Training in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 422-448, June.
    3. Liu, Ye, 2015. "Geographical stratification and the role of the state in access to higher education in contemporary China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 108-117.
    4. Kate Mulholland, 2004. "Workplace resistance in an Irish call centre: slammin’, scammin’ smokin’ an’ leavin’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 18(4), pages 709-724, December.
    5. Andrew Morrison, 2013. "Outclassed?: Undergraduates’ Perceptions of the Competition for Primary Teaching Jobs in England and Wales," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(3), pages 63-73, August.
    6. Giulio Pedrini, 2020. "Off‐the‐job training and the shifting role of part‐time and temporary employment across institutional models. Comparing Italian and British firms," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 427-453, September.
    7. Green, Francis & Henseke, Golo, 2021. "Europe's evolving graduate labour markets: supply, demand, underemployment and pay," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 55, pages 1-2.
    8. Palash Kamruzzaman, 2017. "Understanding the Role of National Development Experts in Development Ethnography," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(1), pages 39-63, January.
    9. Green, Francis & Felstead, Alan & Gallie, Duncan & Henseke, Golo, 2016. "Skills and work organisation in Britain : a quarter century of change (Fertigkeiten, Fertigkeitsanforderungen und Arbeitsorganisation in Grossbritannien : Trends über das letzten Vierteljahrhundert)," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 49(2), pages 121-132.
    10. Jean Jenkins, 2013. "Across Boundaries: The Global Challenges Facing Workers and Employment Research 50th Anniversary Special Issue," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(3), pages 623-643, September.
    11. Stephen Syrett & Leandro Sepulveda, 2011. "Realising the Diversity Dividend: Population Diversity and Urban Economic Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(2), pages 487-504, February.
    12. Johanna L Waters, 2009. "In Pursuit of Scarcity: Transnational Students, ‘Employability’, and the MBA," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(8), pages 1865-1883, August.
    13. Richard Crisp & Ryan Powell, 2017. "Young people and UK labour market policy: A critique of ‘employability’ as a tool for understanding youth unemployment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(8), pages 1784-1807, June.
    14. Taedong Lee & Jeroen van der Heijden, 2019. "Does the knowledge economy advance the green economy? An evaluation of green jobs in the 100 largest metropolitan regions in the United States," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(1), pages 141-155, February.
    15. Rita Hordósy & Tom Clark, 2018. "‘It’s Scary and It’s Big, and There’s No Job Security’: Undergraduate Experiences of Career Planning and Stratification in an English Red Brick University," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Ming Guan, 2021. "Associations Between Perceptions of the Work Environment and Job Burnout Based on MIMIC Models Among 679 Knowledge Workers," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, March.
    17. Mieczyslaw Morawski, 2019. "The Environment of Professional Activity for the Key Knowledge Workers," Proceedings of the 14th International RAIS Conference, August 19-20, 2019 014MM, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies.
    18. Almeida, André & Figueiredo, Hugo & Cerejeira, João & Portela, Miguel & Sá, Carla & Teixeira, Pedro, 2017. "Returns to Postgraduate Education in Portugal: Holding on to a Higher Ground?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 44, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Bazin, Yoann, 2013. "Understanding organisational gestures: Technique, aesthetics and embodiment," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 377-393.
    20. John Benson & Michelle Brown, 2007. "Knowledge workers: what keeps them committed; what turns them away," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(1), pages 121-141, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:30:y:2016:i:2:p:366-376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.