Revolutions
Thomas P. Hughes, in the 2000 Gould lecture at the University of Utah, talks about industrial revolutions and the criteria to be used to evaluate whether there is an information revolution.His conclusion is that there is, and that depending on how you count, the information revolution is the Third Industrial Revolution. The first being the British Industrial Revolution, the second being the American Industrial Revolution, is the third a national phenomena or a world wide phenomena? Is the Information Revolution the New World Order?
One of the most telling indicators of an industrial revolution, to me, is the flurry of interrelated innovations that characterises the early stages. These innovations create a series of mutually interlocking developments across a broad swath of activities. For example, Hughes describes the Second Industrial Revolution like the First as involving 'new interlocking means of transportation, new power sources, new materials, mass production of consumer goods, advances in industrial chemistry, and innovative modes of production."
Hughes suggests that such interlocked developments are still in their formative stages for the Information Revolution and that bio-technology has not yet been fully integrated.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, social and political changes accompanied the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. Hughes sees in a change in managment practices evidence of such change. I find this the most provacative part of his analysis. The change in management practices resulting from Fordism and Taylorism to such new practices as flat, distributed, flexible and entrepreneurial practices is his evidence. He finds in the counter culture movement of the late 60's the seeds for the new managment practices. I will have to re-read my Rozak (The Making of a Counter Culture, 1969).
