ABSTRACT
The themes that comprise the wider narrative about the birth of post-industrialism and informational societies are significant because they provide the basis for further claims made about digital publics. According to some, a new socio-economic paradigm was coming into being that was different to the earlier post-industrial society thesis. A leading light in this new paradigm was and still is Manuel Castells. During the 1990s, Castells stated that his intention was to shift the analytical focus from post-industrialism to informationalism. There is little doubt that the ideas set forth by early pioneers of the post-industrial society thesis, such as those associated with Daniel Bell and Peter Drucker, had a tremendous impact on subsequent debates concerning the transformation of capitalist societies. By the end of the 1950s, Ralph Dahrendorf's was arguing that Western societies were entering what he termed a post-capitalist age grounded in new social structures and new aspirations and ideals.
