Post-Industrialism: Theory Versus Practice

Transformations in contemporary society have been identified and defined by a number of different sociological approaches such as post-industrial, post-modern, information and knowledge, societies. According to some, like Marsh (2011), these approaches tend to describe the same changes in similar ways but Information Society and Castells’ (2000) network society theories ha ve made significant contributions to our understanding of contemporary society. Various post-industrial theories suggest societies have changed so significantly they require a new label depending on specific characteristics. For example, information society discourses would suggest that the defining characteristic driving this change is information and knowledge.