ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how industrialism peaked in Europe in the 1970s and how this was understood at the time. It also shows the distinctive features of the subsequent growth of the service sector in post-industrial European countries. The theory of industrial society predicted an end to basic social conflicts and posited a fundamental political consensus. The theory of industrial society provided a powerful account of the dynamics of change in post-World War II Europe. A similar contrast with the contemporary situation arises in a focus on the high levels of absolute social mobility predicted by the theory of industrial society. By the 1990s British commentators often claimed that the low level of manufacturing in the UK showed how far the country had advanced to a post-industrial society. The focus on knowledge connects back to Bell, for whom codified abstract knowledge was the key economic resource of the post-industrial society.
