Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse
Chapter One--
The Postindustrial Context
This is a strange period in the history of the United States because people lack a shared understanding of the kind of society in which they live. For generations, the United States was understood as an industrial society, but that definition of reality is no longer compelling. Yet no convincing alternative has emerged in its absence.
This confusion and uncertainty is reflected in both commonsense views and social theory. Contemporary social theorists tell us remarkably little about the kind of historical era in which we live.1 Social theorists have become preoccupied with questions of metatheory; much theoretical debate centers on defining the proper scope and ambition of social theory and on determining the kind of theory that should be created. Recent years have seen relatively few efforts to define the nature of contemporary societies and to delineate their major dynamics. It is almost as though such an effort
More accurately, they tell us little directly; their silence on the classical issue of defining the natur ... read full excerpt from Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse ebook
