ABSTRACT
Industrial society represents an extreme in several ways, from which the information society is retreating. Post-industrial society is predicated upon the emergence of several new technologies. Information technology represents an outgrowth of developments in electronics and microelectronics, the technologies of which are central to both communications and computing. In addition, new energy-based technology has developed in response to the finiteness of oil resources and associated cost increases; this includes transport-system changes such as smaller, more efficient cars, electric vehicles, new or improved public transport systems such as new mass-transit metro systems, and small-vehicle systems such as personal rapid transit. Urban form is treated here as the pattern of residential and non-residential urban activities and their interactions as expressed by the built environment which accommodates them. The motivational forces for technological change are twofold: on the supply side, sustaining economic growth and profit-for-private-sector industry; on the demand side, meeting human needs and aspirations.
