ABSTRACT
Historians looking back to the closing decades of the twentieth century may well identify our own times as the crucial period of a new industrial revolution. Certainly they will identify some profound changes in the nature of work. It is too soon to make such historical judgements, as these changes are still taking place around us now and their full implications are far from clear. But already we can see that there are pervasive effects on economic organisation and living standards, on family and household structure, and on community and social cohesion.
