ABSTRACT
A new society emerges when and if a structural transformation can be observed in the relationships of production, in the relationships of power, and in the relationships of experience. Productivity and competitiveness are the commanding processes of the informational/global economy. Productivity essentially stems from innovation, competitiveness from flexibility. Flexibility, enacted organizationally by the network enterprise, requires networkers, and flextimers, as well as a wide array of working arrangements, including self-employment and reciprocal subcontracting. The first level concerns the holders of property rights. The second level of capitalist forms refers to the managerial class; that is the controllers of capital assets on behalf of shareholders. The third level in the process of appropriation of profits by capital is both an old story and a fundamental feature of the new informational capitalism. The borderline between social exclusion and daily survival is increasingly blurred for a growing number of people in all societies.
