V modern world there are various forms of societies that differ significantly from each other in many respects. Similarly, in the history of mankind, you can see that there were different types of societies.

Typology of society

We looked at society from the inside: its structural elements. But if we approach the analysis of society as an integral organism, but one of many, we will see that in the modern world there are various types of societies that differ sharply in many parameters. A retrospective view shows that society has also gone through various stages in its development.

It is known that any living, naturally developing organism, during the time from its inception to the end of its existence, goes through a number of stages, which, in essence, are the same for all organisms belonging to this kind, regardless of the specific conditions of their life. Probably, this statement is to a certain extent true for social communities, considered as a whole.

The typology of society is the definition of

a) what steps mankind goes through in its historical development;

b) what forms of modern society exist.

What criteria can be used to determine historical types, as well as various forms of modern society? Different sociologists have approached this problem in different ways.

So, English sociologist E. Giddens subdivides societies into the main way of earning a livelihood and identifies the following types of societies.

· Hunter-gatherer societies consist of a small number of people who support their existence by hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants. Inequality in these societies is weak; differences in social status are determined by age and sex (the time of existence - from 50,000 years BC to the present time, although now they are on the verge of complete extinction).

At the heart agricultural societies- small rural communities; there are no cities. The main way of obtaining a livelihood is agriculture, sometimes supplemented by hunting and gathering. These societies are more unequal than hunter-gatherers; these societies are headed by leaders. (The time of their existence - from 12,000 BC to the present time. Today, most of them are part of larger political formations and are gradually losing their specific character).

· Pastoralist societies are based on breeding domestic animals to meet material needs. The sizes of such societies range from a few hundred to thousands of people. These societies are usually characterized by strong inequalities. They are ruled by leaders or military leaders. The same length of time as agricultural societies. Today pastoralist societies are also part of the larger states; and their traditional way of life is destroyed

· Traditional States, or Civilizations... In these societies, the basis economic system agriculture is still there, but there are cities in which trade and production are concentrated. Among the traditional states, there are very large ones, with a multimillion population, although their size is usually small in comparison with large industrial countries. Traditional states have a special government apparatus headed by a king or emperor. Significant inequalities exist between the various classes (dating from about 6000 BC to the nineteenth century). To this day, traditional states have completely disappeared from the face of the earth. Although hunter-gatherer tribes, as well as pastoral and agricultural communities continue to exist, they can only be found in isolated areas. The cause of the destruction of societies that defined the entire human history two centuries ago was industrialization - the emergence of machine production based on the use of inanimate energy sources (such as steam and electricity). Industrial societies are in many ways fundamentally different from any of the previous types of social structure, and their development has led to consequences that have affected far beyond the borders of their European homeland.

· Industrial (industrial) societies are based on industrial production, with a significant role assigned to free enterprise. Only a small part of the population is employed in agriculture; the overwhelming majority of people live in cities. There is significant class inequality, albeit less pronounced than in traditional states. These societies constitute special political formations, or national states (the time of existence - from the eighteenth century to the present).

Industrial society - modern society. Until now, in relation to modern societies, they use their division into countries of the first, second and third world.

Ø Term first world denotes the industrialized countries of Europe, Australia, Asia, and the United States and Japan. Almost all countries of the first world adopted a multiparty parliamentary system of government.

Ø Countries second world called the industrial societies that were part of the socialist camp (today these countries include societies with an economy in transition, i.e. developing from a centralized state to a market system).

Ø Countries third world, in which most of the world's population lives, almost all were formerly colonies. These are societies in which most of the population is engaged in agriculture, lives in rural areas and uses mainly traditional production methods. However, some of the agricultural products are sold on the world market. The industrialization level of the third world countries is low, the majority of the population is very poor. In some third world countries there is a system of free enterprise, in others - central planning.

The best known are two approaches to the typology of society: formational and civilizational.

A socio-economic formation is a historically defined type of society based on a specific mode of production.

Mode of production- This is one of the central concepts in Marxist sociology, characterizing a certain level of development of the entire complex of social relations. The production method is the totality of production relations and productive forces. In order to obtain means of livelihood (to produce them), people must unite, cooperate, enter into certain relationships for joint activities, which are called production. Productive forces - it is a combination of people with a set of material resources in work: raw materials, tools, equipment, tools, buildings and structures. This the set of material elements forms the means of production. The main part of productive forces are of course themselves people (personality element) with their knowledge, skills and abilities.

The productive forces are the most flexible, mobile, continuously developing part this unity. Industrial relations are more inert, are inactive, slow in their change, however, they form that shell, a nutrient medium, in which the productive forces develop. The indissoluble unity of the productive forces and production relations is called the mode of production, since it indicates in what way the personal element of the productive forces is combined with the material, thereby forming a specific method of obtaining material goods inherent in a given level of development of society.

On the foundation basis (industrial relations) grows up superstructure. It is, in fact, the totality of all other relations, "remaining after the deduction of production", and containing many different institutions, such as the state, family, religion or different kinds ideologies existing in society. The main specificity of the Marxist position proceeds from the assertion that the nature of the superstructure is determined by the nature of the base.

A historically defined stage in the development of a given society, which is characterized by a specific mode of production and the corresponding superstructure, is called socio-economic formation.

A change in production methods(and the transition from one socio-economic formation to another) is caused by antagonism between outdated relations of production and productive forces, which becomes cramped in these old frames, and they break.

Based on the formational approach, all human history is divided into five socio-economic formations:

Primitive,

Slave-owning,

Feudal,

Capitalist,

· Communist (including socialist society as its initial, first phase).

Primitive communal system (or primitive societies). Here the production method is characterized by:

1) extremely low level development of productive forces, all labor is necessary; everything that is produced is consumed without a remainder, without forming any surplus, which means that it does not give an opportunity either to make savings or to carry out exchange operations;

2) elementary production relations are based on public (more precisely, communal) ownership of the means of production; people cannot appear who could afford to professionally engage in management, science, religious rituals, etc .;

3) it makes no sense to force the captives to work forcibly: they will use everything they produce without reserve.

Slavery:

1) the level of development of the productive forces makes it possible to profitably convert prisoners into slaves;

2) the emergence of a surplus product creates the material prerequisites for the emergence of the state and for professional engagement in religious activities, science and art (for a certain part of the population);

3) slavery as a social institution is defined as a form of property that gives one person the right to own another person.

Feudalism. The most developed feudal societies are characterized by the following features:

1) relations of the lord-vassal type;

2) monarchical form of government;

3) land tenure based on the granting of feudal estates (feuds) in exchange for service, primarily military;

4) the existence of private armies;

5) certain rights of landowners in relation to serfs;

6) the main object of property in the feudal socio-economic formation is land.

Capitalism. This type of economic organization is distinguished by the following features:

1) the presence of private property;

2) making a profit is the main motive for economic activity;

3) market economy;

4) appropriation of profits by capital owners;

5) providing the labor process with workers who act as free agents of production.

Communism. More like a doctrine than a practice, this concept refers to societies in which absent:

1) private property;

2) social classes and the state;

3) compulsory ("enslaving man") division of labor;

4) commodity-money relations.

Karl Marx argued that communist societies would gradually take shape after the revolutionary overthrow of capitalist societies.

The criterion of progress, according to Marx, is:

- the level of development of productive forces and a consistent increase in the share of surplus labor in the total volume of labor;

- a consistent increase in the degree of freedom of a man of labor during the transition from one formation to another.

The formative approach that Marx relied on in his analysis of society has historically been justified.

An approach based on the analysis of civilizational revolutions meets the needs of a more adequate understanding of modern society. Civilization approach more versatile than formational. The development of civilizations is a more powerful, significant, long-term process than the change in formations. In modern sociology, on the question of types of society, it is not so much the Marxian concept of the sequential change of socio-economic formations that prevails as "triadic" scheme - types of agrarian, industrial and post-industrial civilization. Unlike the formational typology of society, which is based on economic structures, certain production relations, the concept of "civilization" fixes attention not only on the economic and technological side, but on the totality of all forms of society's life - material and economic, political, cultural, moral, religious , aesthetic. In the civilization scheme, the focus is on Not only the most fundamental structure of social and historical activity - technology, but to a greater extent - a set of cultural patterns, values, goals, motives, ideals.

The concept of "civilization" is important in the classification of types of society. In history stand out civilizational revolutions:

— agrarian(it took place 6-8 thousand years ago and carried out the transition of mankind from consumer to productive activity;

— industrial(XVII century);

— scientific and technical (mid-twentieth century);

— informational(modern).

Hence, in sociology, stable is division of societies into:

- pre-industrial (agricultural) or traditional(in the modern sense, backward, basically agricultural, primitive, conservative, closed, not free societies);

- industrial, man-made(i.e., having a developed industrial basis, dynamic, flexible, free and open in the organization of social life);

- postindustrial(i.e., the most developed countries, production basis which is the use of the achievements of scientific-technical and scientific-technological revolutions and in which, due to the sharp increase in the role and significance of the latest science and information, significant structural social changes have occurred).

Under traditional civilization understand pre-capitalist (pre-industrial) social structures of the agrarian type, in the culture of which traditions are the main method of social regulation. Traditional civilization covers not only the periods of antiquity and the Middle Ages, this type of social organization has survived to our times. Many countries of the so-called "third world" have features of a traditional society. Its characteristic signs are:

- the agrarian orientation of the economy and the extensive type of its development;

- a high level of dependence on natural climatic, geographical conditions of life;

- conservatism in social relations and lifestyle; orientation not towards development, but towards the reconstruction and preservation of the established order and existing structures of social life;

- negative attitude to any innovations (innovations);

- extensive and cyclical type of development;

- priority of traditions, established norms, customs, authority;

- a high level of human dependence on social group and tight social control;

- a sharp limitation of individual freedom.

Idea industrial society developed in the 50-60s by such well-known sociologists of the United States and Western Europe as R. Darendorf, R. Aron, W. Rostow, D. Bell and others. Industrial society theories are today being combined with technocratic concepts as well as with the theory of convergence.

The first concept of an industrial society was put forward by a French scientist Jean Fourastier in the book "The Great Hope of the 20th Century" (1949). The term "traditional society" was borrowed by him from the German sociologist M. Weber, the term "industrial society" - from A. Saint-Simon. In the history of mankind, Fourastier singled out two main stages:

· The period of traditional society (from the Neolithic to 1750-1800);

· The period of the industrial society (from 1750-1800 to the present).

J. Fourastier pays the main attention to the industrial society, which, in his opinion, is fundamentally different from the traditional one.

An industrial society, in contrast to a traditional one, is a dynamically developing, progressive society. The source of its development is technical progress. And this progress changes not only production, but society as a whole. It provides not only a significant overall improvement in living standards, but also an equalization of incomes for all strata of society. As a result, in industrial society impoverished classes disappear. Technological progress in itself is everything social problems, which makes a social revolution unnecessary. The specified work by J. Fourastier breathes with optimism.

In general, the idea of ​​an industrial society has not received widespread... She became famous only after the appearance of the works of another French thinker - Raymond Arona, which is often attributed to her authorship. R. Aron, like J. Fourastier, identified two main stadial types of human society: traditional (agrarian) and industrial (rational). The first of them is characterized by the dominance of agriculture and animal husbandry, subsistence farming, the existence of estates, an authoritarian mode of government, for the second - the domination of industrial production, the market, equality of citizens before the law and democracy.

The transition from a traditional society to an industrial one was a tremendous progress in every way. Industrial (technogenic) civilization formed on the ruins of medieval society. It was based on the development of mass machine production.

Historically the emergence of an industrial society was associated with such processes:

- the creation of nation states rallying around common language and culture;

- the commercialization of production and the disappearance of the subsistence economy;

- the dominance of machine production and the reorganization of production at the factory;

- the decline in the share of the working class employed in agricultural production;

- urbanization of society;

- the growth of mass literacy;

- Granting electoral rights to the population and institutionalizing politics around mass parties.

Typology of society

Modern societies differ in many ways, but they also have the same parameters by which they can be typologized.

One of the main directions in the typology of society is the choice of political relations, forms state power as the basis for distinguishing between different types of society. For example, in Plato and Aristotle, societies differ in the type of state structure: monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy. V modern options this approach is marked by the allocation of totalitarian (the state determines all the main directions of social life); democratic (the population can influence state structures) and authoritarian (combining elements of totalitarianism and democracy) societies.

The typologization of society is based on Marxism on the distinction between societies by the type of production relations in various socio-economic formations: primitive communal society (primitive appropriating mode of production); societies with an Asian mode of production (the presence of a special type of collective land ownership); slave societies (ownership of people and the use of slave labor); feudal (exploitation of peasants attached to the land); communist or socialist societies (equal attitude of all to ownership of the means of production through the elimination of private property relations).

Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies

The most stable in modern sociology is considered to be a typology based on the separation of traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies.

A traditional society (also called simple and agrarian) is a society with an agrarian way of life, sedentary structures and a method of socio-cultural regulation based on traditions (traditional society). The behavior of individuals in it is strictly controlled, regulated by customs and norms of traditional behavior, well-established social institutions, among which the most important will be the family and the community. Attempts of any social transformations and innovations are rejected. It is characterized by low rates of development and production. Important for this type of society is the well-established social solidarity, which was established by Durkheim, studying the society of Australian aborigines.

Traditional society is characterized by a natural division and specialization of labor (mainly by gender and age), personalization of interpersonal communication (directly by individuals, and not by officials or status officials), informal regulation of interactions (by the norms of the unwritten laws of religion and morality), relatedness of members by kinship relations (family type of organization community), a primitive system of community management (hereditary power, the rule of elders).

Modern societies are distinguished by the following features: role-based interaction (expectations and behavior of people are determined by the social status and social functions of individuals); developing deep division of labor (on a professional and qualification basis related to education and work experience); a formal system for regulating relations (based on written law: laws, regulations, contracts, etc.); a complex system of social management (separation of the institution of management, special management bodies: political, economic, territorial and self-government); secularization of religion (separating it from the system of government); the allocation of a multitude of social institutions (self-reproducing systems of special relations, allowing to ensure public control, inequality, protection of its members, distribution of benefits, production, communication).

These include industrial and post-industrial societies.

Industrial society is a type of organization of social life that combines the freedom and interests of the individual with general principles regulating them joint activities... It is characterized by the flexibility of social structures, social mobility, and a developed communication system.

In the 1960s. the concepts of post-industrial (informational) society appear (D. Bell, A. Touraine, J. Habermas), caused by abrupt changes in the economy and culture of the most developed countries. The leading role in society is recognized as the role of knowledge and information, computer and automatic devices. An individual who has received the necessary education, who has access to the latest information, gets an advantageous chance of moving up the ladder of the social hierarchy. Creative work becomes the main goal of a person in society.

The negative side of the post-industrial society is the danger of increasing social control on the part of the state, the ruling elite through access to information and electronic means mass information and communication over people and society as a whole.

The life world of human society is increasingly subject to the logic of efficiency and instrumentalism. Culture, including traditional values, is destroyed under the influence of administrative control, which tends to standardize and unify social relations and social behavior. Society is increasingly subject to the logic of economic life and bureaucratic thinking.

Distinctive features of a post-industrial society:

• - the transition from the production of goods to the economy of services;
• - the rise and dominance of highly educated professional and technical specialists;
• - the main role theoretical knowledge as a source of discoveries and political decisions in society;
• - control over technology and the ability to assess the consequences of scientific and technical innovations;
• - making decisions based on the creation of intelligent technology, as well as using the so-called information technology.

The latter is brought into being by the needs of the information society that has begun to form. The emergence of such a phenomenon is by no means accidental. The basis social dynamics in the information society are not traditional material resources, which are also largely exhausted, but informational (intellectual): knowledge, scientific, organizational factors, intellectual abilities of people, their initiative, creativity.

The concept of post-industrialism has been developed in detail today, has a lot of supporters and an ever-increasing number of opponents. There are two main directions for assessing the future development of human society in the world: eco-pessimism and techno-optimism. Eco-pessimism predicts an all-out global catastrophe in 2030 due to increasing pollution environment; destruction of the Earth's biosphere. Techno-optimism paints a more rosy picture, assuming that scientific and technological progress will cope with all the difficulties on the path of society's development.

typology society postindustrial

This stage is also called traditional or agrarian. Extractive types of economic activities prevail here - agriculture, fishing, mining. The overwhelming majority of the population (approximately 90%) is employed in agriculture. The main task of the agrarian society was the production food products to just feed the population. It is the longest of the three stages, and has a history spanning thousands of years. In our time, at this stage of development, most of the countries of Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia... In a pre-industrial society, the main producer is not man, but nature. This stage is also characterized by rigidly authoritarian power and land ownership as the basis of the economy.

Industrial Society

In an industrial society, all forces are directed towards industrial production in order to produce the goods that society needs. The industrial revolution has borne fruit - now the main task of the agrarian and industrial society, which is simply to feed the population and provide it with basic livelihoods, has faded into the background. Only 5-10% of the agricultural population produced enough food to feed the entire society.

Post-industrial society

The transition to a new type of society - post-industrial takes place in the last third of the XX century. Society is already provided with food and goods, and various services are highlighted, mainly related to the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge. And as a result of the scientific and technological revolution, science was transformed into a direct productive force, which became the main factor in both the development of society and its self-preservation.

Together with this, a person has more free time, and, consequently, opportunities for creativity, self-realization. At this time, technical developments are becoming more and more science-intensive, theoretical knowledge is gaining the greatest importance. The dissemination of this knowledge is provided by an overdeveloped communication network.

Social development can be reformist or revolutionary. Reform (from French reforme, Latin reformare - to transform). Revolution (from Latin revolutio - turn, coup). Social development: - this is any degree of improvement in any area of ​​public life, carried out simultaneously, through a series of gradual transformations that do not affect the fundamental foundations (systems, phenomena, structures); - This is a radical, qualitative change in all or most aspects of social life, affecting the foundations of the existing social system.

Types: 1) Progressive (for example, the reforms of the 60-70s of the XIX century in Russia - the Great reforms of Alexander II); 2) Regressive (reactionary) (for example, the reforms of the second half of the 80s - early 90s of the XIX century in Russia - "Counterreforms" of Alexander III); 3) Short-term (for example, the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia); 4) Long-term (for example, the Neolithic revolution - 3 thousand years; the industrial revolution of the 18th-19th centuries). Reforms can take place in all spheres of public life: - economic reforms- transformation of the economic mechanism: forms, methods, levers and organization of management of the country's economy (privatization, bankruptcy law, antimonopoly laws, etc.); - social reforms- transformations, changes, reorganization of any aspects of social life, not destroying the foundations social system(these reforms are directly related to people); - political reforms - changes in political sphere public life (changes in the constitution, electoral system, expansion of civil rights, etc.). The degree of reformist transformations can be very significant, up to changes in the social system or the type of economic system: the reforms of Peter I ”reforms in Russia in the early 90s. XX century In modern conditions, there are two ways social development- reform and revolution - opposed to the practice of permanent reform in a self-regulating society. It should be recognized that both the reform and the revolution "cure" an already neglected disease, while constant and possibly early prevention is needed. Therefore, in modern social science, the emphasis is shifted from the "reform - revolution" dilemma to "reform - innovation".

Innovation (from the English innovation - innovation, innovation, innovation) is understood as an ordinary, one-time improvement associated with an increase in the adaptive capabilities of the social organism in the given conditions. In modern sociology, social development is associated with the process of modernization. Modernization (from the French moderniser - modern) is a process of transition from a traditional, agrarian society to modern, industrial societies.

Classical modernization theories described the so-called "primary" modernization, which historically coincided with the development of Western capitalism. Later theories of modernization characterize it through the concept of "secondary" or "catch-up" modernization. It is carried out in the conditions of the existence of a "sample", for example, in the form of the Western European liberal model, often such modernization is understood as Westernization, that is, the process of direct borrowing or planting.

In essence, this modernization is a worldwide process of crowding out local, local types of cultures and social organization by "universal" (Western) forms of modernity.

There are several classifications (typologies) of society:

• 1) pre-written and written;
• 2) simple and complex (as a criterion in this typology, the number of levels of management of a society acts, as well as the degree of its differentiation: in simple societies there are no leaders and subordinates, rich and poor, in complex societies there are several levels of government and several social strata of the population located from top to bottom as income decreases);
• 3) primitive society, slave-owning society, feudal society, capitalist society, communist society (a formational feature acts as a criterion in this typology);
• 4) developed, developing, backward (the level of development acts as a criterion in this typology);
• 5) let's compare the following types of society (traditional (pre-industrial) - a, industrial - b, post-industrial (information) - c) along the following lines of comparison: - the main factor of production - a) land; b) capital; c) knowledge; - the main product of production - a) food; b) industrial products; c) services; - specific traits production - a) manual labor; b) widespread use of mechanisms, technologies; c) automation of production, computerization of society; - the nature of labor - a) individual labor; b) preemptive standard activities; c) a sharp increase in creativity in work; - employment of the population - a) agriculture - about 75%; b) agriculture - about 10%, industry - 85%; c) agriculture - up to 3%, industry - about 33%, services - about 66%; - the main type of export - a) raw materials; b) products of production; c) services; - social structure - a) estates, classes, inclusion of all in the collective, closedness of social structures, low social mobility; b) class division, simplification of social structure, mobility and openness of social structures; c) the preservation of social differentiation, the growth of the middle class, professional differentiation depending on the level of knowledge, qualifications; - life expectancy - a) 40-50 years; b) over 70 years old; c) over 70 years; - human impact on nature - a) local, uncontrollable; b) global, uncontrolled; c) global, controlled; - interaction with other countries - a) insignificant; b) close relationship; c) openness of society; - political life- a) the predominance of monarchical forms of government; there are no political freedoms; power is above the law, no justification is needed for it; a combination of self-governing communities and traditional empires; b) the proclamation of political freedoms, equality before the law, democratic reforms; power is not taken for granted, it is required to substantiate the right to leadership; c) political pluralism, strong civil society; occurrence new form democracy - "democracy of consensus"; - spiritual life - a) traditional religious values ​​dominate; homogeneous nature of culture; oral transmission of information prevails; a small number of educated people; fight against illiteracy; b) new values ​​of progress, personal success, faith in science are affirmed; mass culture emerges and occupies a leading position; training of specialists; c) the special role of science, education; development of individualized consciousness; continuing education... Formation and civilizational approaches to the study of society The most common approaches to the analysis of social development in Russian historical and philosophical science are formational and civilizational.

The first of them belongs to the Marxist school of social science, the founders of which were the German economists, sociologists and philosophers K. Marx (1818-1883) and F. Engels (1820-1895). The key concept of this school of social science is the category "socio-economic formation".

The classical characteristics of an industrial society suggests that it is formed as a result of the development of machine production and the emergence of new forms of mass labor organization. Historically, this stage corresponded to the social situation in Western Europe in 1800-1960

general characteristics

The generally accepted characteristic of an industrial society includes several fundamental features. What are they? First, an industrial society is based on a developed industry. It has a division of labor that enhances productivity. Competition is an important feature. Without it, the characterization of industrial society would be incomplete.

Capitalism leads to the fact that entrepreneurial activity of brave and initiative people is actively growing. At the same time, civil society is developing, as well as the state administrative system. It becomes more efficient and more complex. An industrial society cannot be imagined without modern means of communication, urbanized cities and High Quality life of the average citizen.

Technology development

Any characteristic of an industrial society, in short, includes such a phenomenon as the industrial revolution. It was she who allowed Great Britain to be the first in human history stop being an agrarian country. When the economy begins to rely not on the cultivation of crops, but on a new industry, the first shoots of an industrial society appear.

At the same time, there is a noticeable redistribution of labor resources. The labor force leaves agriculture and goes to the city for factories. Up to 15% of the population of the state remains in the agricultural sector. Urban population growth is also contributing to the revitalization of trade.

In production, the main factor is entrepreneurial activity. The presence of this phenomenon is the characteristic of an industrial society. This relationship was first described briefly by the Austrian and American economist Joseph Schumpeter. On this path, society at a certain point is experiencing a scientific and technological revolution. After that, the post-industrial period begins, which already corresponds to the present.

Free society

Together with the onset of industrialization, society becomes socially mobile. This allows people to break the framework that exists under the traditional order characteristic of the Middle Ages and the agrarian economy. In the state, the boundaries between the estates are blurred. Caste disappears in them. In other words, people can get rich and become successful thanks to their efforts and skills, without looking back at their own origins.

The characteristic of an industrial society is significant economic growth due to an increase in the number of highly qualified specialists. In society, technicians and scientists are in the first place, who determine the future of the country. This order is also called technocracy or the power of technology. The work of merchants, advertising specialists and other people who occupy a special position in the social structure is becoming more significant and weighty.

Folding nation states

Scientists have determined that the main characteristics of an industrial society boil down to the fact that it is industrial and becomes dominant in all areas of life from culture to economy. Together with urbanization and changes in social stratification, the emergence of nation-states, formed around a common language, is taking place. Also a big role in this process plays unique culture ethnos.

In medieval agrarian society, the national factor was not so significant. In the Catholic kingdoms of the XIV century, belonging to one or another feudal lord was much more important. Even armies were hired. It was only in the 19th century that the principle of national recruitment into the state armed forces was finally formed.

Demography

The demographic situation is changing. What is the characteristic of an industrial society hidden here? Signs of change boil down to a decline in fertility in one average family. People devote more time to their own education, standards in relation to the presence of offspring are changing. All this affects the number of children in one classical “cell of society”.

But at the same time, the mortality rate is falling. This is due to the development of medicine. Medical services and medicines are becoming more accessible to a wide segment of the population. Life expectancy increases. The population dies more in old age than in youth (for example, from disease or war).

Consumer society

The enrichment of people in the industrial era led to the emergence of the main motive of the labor of its members is the desire to buy and acquire as much as possible. Is emerging new system values, which is built around the importance of material wealth.

The term was coined by the German sociologist Erich Fromm. In this context, he stressed the importance of reducing working hours, increasing the proportion of free time, and blurring the boundaries between classes. This is the characteristic of an industrial society. The table shows the main features of this period of human development.

Mass culture

The classic characteristic of an industrial society in terms of spheres of life says that consumption increases in each of them. Production begins to focus on standards that are defined by the so-called This phenomenon is one of the most clear signs industrial society.

What is it? Popular culture formulates the basic psychological attitudes of the consumer society in the industrial era. Art is becoming available to everyone. It either willingly or unwillingly promotes certain norms of behavior. They can be called fashion or lifestyle. In the West, the flourishing of mass culture was accompanied by its commercialization and the creation of show business.

John Gelbraith's theory

Industrial society has been extensively studied by many scientists of the 20th century. One of the prominent economists in this line is John Galbraith. He substantiated several fundamental laws with the help of which the characteristics of an industrial society are formulated. No less than 7 provisions of his theory have become fundamental for the new and currents of our time.

Gelbraith believed that the development of an industrial society led not only to the establishment of capitalism, but also to the creation of monopolies. Large corporations in the economic conditions of the free market make wealth and absorb competitors. They control production, trade, capital, and progress in science and technology.

Strengthening the economic role of the state

An important characteristic, according to the theory of John Galbraith, is that in a country with a similar system relations, the state is strengthening its intervention in the economy. Before that, in the agrarian era of the Middle Ages, the authorities simply did not have the resources to radically influence the market. In an industrial society, the situation is exactly the opposite.

The economist, in his own way, noted the development of technology in a new era. By this term, he meant the application of systematized new knowledge in production. Demands lead to the fact that corporations and the state triumph in the economy. This is due to the fact that it is they who become the owners of unique scientific production developments.

At the same time, Gelbraith believed that under industrial capitalism the capitalists themselves had lost their former influence. Now having money did not mean power and importance at all. Instead of owners, scientists and technical specialists come to the fore, who can offer new modern inventions and manufacturing techniques. This is the characteristic of an industrial society. According to Galbraith's plan, the former working class is being eroded under these conditions. The strained relations between the proletarians and the capitalists are coming to naught thanks to technical progress and the equalization of the incomes of graduates.

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Typology of societies

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Typology of societies: Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies

In the modern world, there are various types of societies that differ from each other in many ways, both explicit (language of communication, culture, geographic location, size, etc.) and hidden (degree of social integration, level of stability, etc.). Scientific classification involves the selection of the most essential, typical features that distinguish some features from others and unite societies of the same group.
Typology(from the Greek tupoc - imprint, form, pattern and logoc - word, teaching) - a method of scientific cognition, which is based on the dismemberment of systems of objects and their grouping using a generalized, idealized model or type.
In the middle of the 19th century, K. Marx proposed a typology of societies, which was based on the mode of production of material goods and production relations - first of all, property relations. He divided all societies into 5 main types (according to the type of socio-economic formations): primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist (the initial phase is a socialist society).
Another typology divides all societies into simple and complex. The criterion is the number of management levels and the degree of social differentiation (stratification).
A simple society is a society in which the constituent parts are homogeneous, there are no rich and poor, leaders and subordinates, the structure and functions here are poorly differentiated and can easily be interchanged. Such are the primitive tribes that have survived in some places to this day.
A complex society is a society with highly differentiated structures and functions, interrelated and interdependent, which necessitates their coordination.
K. Popper distinguishes between two types of societies: closed and open. The differences between them are based on a number of factors, and, above all, the relationship between social control and individual freedom.
A closed society is characterized by a static social structure, limited mobility, immunity to innovations, traditionalism, dogmatic authoritarian ideology, collectivism. To this type of society K. Popper attributed Sparta, Prussia, tsarist Russia, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union the Stalin era.
An open society is characterized by a dynamic social structure, high mobility, innovation, criticism, individualism, and a democratic pluralist ideology. K. Popper considered ancient Athens and modern Western democracies to be examples of open societies.
Modern sociology uses all typologies, combining them into some synthetic model. The prominent American sociologist Daniel Bell (b. 1919) is considered its creator. He subdivided world history three stages: pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial. When one stage replaces another, the technology, the mode of production, the form of ownership, social institutions, political regime, culture, lifestyle, population, and the social structure of society change.
Traditional (pre-industrial) society- a society with an agrarian way of life, with a predominance of natural economy, class hierarchy, sedentary structures and a method of socio-cultural regulation based on tradition. It is characterized by manual labor, extremely low rates of development of production, which can satisfy the needs of people only at a minimum level. It is extremely inertial, therefore it is not receptive to innovations. The behavior of individuals in such a society is regulated by customs, norms, and social institutions. Customs, norms, institutions, consecrated by traditions, are considered unshakable, not allowing even the thought of changing them. Carrying out their integrative function, culture and social institutions suppress any manifestation of personal freedom, which is necessary condition gradual renewal of society.
Industrial Society- The term industrial society was introduced by A. Saint-Simon, emphasizing its new technical basis.
In modern terms, this is a complex society, with an industry-based way of managing, with flexible, dynamic and modifying structures, a way of socio-cultural regulation based on a combination of individual freedom and the interests of society. These societies are characterized by a developed division of labor, the development of mass media, urbanization, etc.
Post-industrial society- (sometimes called informational) - a society developed on an information basis: mining (in traditional societies) and processing (in industrial societies) products of nature are replaced by the acquisition and processing of information, as well as preferential development (instead of Agriculture in traditional societies and industry in industrial) services. As a result, the structure of employment and the ratio of various professional and qualification groups are changing. According to forecasts, already at the beginning of the 21st century in advanced countries, half of the workforce will be employed in the field of information, a quarter - in the field of material production, and a quarter - in the production of services, including information.
The change in the technological basis also affects the organization of the entire system. social connections and relationships. If in an industrial society the mass class was made up of workers, then in a post-industrial society it was employees and managers. At the same time, the significance of class differentiation is weakening, instead of a status (“grainy”) social structure, a functional (“ready-made”) structure is being formed. Instead of leadership, the principle of governance is being replaced by coordination, and representative democracy is being replaced by direct democracy and self-government. As a result, instead of a hierarchy of structures, a new type of network organization is created, focused on rapid change depending on the situation.