ABSTRACT

A close examination of the literature in economics indicates, however, that the function of knowledge and information in economic activity is, for the most part, ignored by economists. It is by no means unusual to encounter assertions even today which treat work in the manufacturing sector of the economy as relatively homogeneous. The future of work has been a central concern of social theorists for centuries ever since employment in the sense of a commitment to paid work, in eighteenth-century Europe, became not only an existential imperative but an emblem of civilization. In the context of the theory of post-industrial society, however, new hopes seem to be raised about the chances of an emancipation of workers within the context of work because post-industrial society is a communal society in which the social unit is the community organization rather than the individual, a world in which the modalities are 'cooperation and reciprocity rather than coordination and hierarchy'.