Third Wave is a book published by Alvin Toffler in 1980. It is a sequel to Powershift (1970) and second in the trilogy also containg Powershift (1990). A new edition Revolutionary Wealth (2006) maybe considered a major expansion of The Third Wave.
Toffler in the book describes transition in Developed countries from the second wave Industrial societies to the third wave Information age societies. *(The book to a great extent is a futurists peek into realities of today, one of my favorite reads)
THEORY -
Toffler describes three types of societies, each pushing the older society and culture aside like waves in an ocean or any water body.
1. The first wave came with the discovery of agriculture as humans moved from hunter-gatherer style of living to cultivators-domesticators
2. The second wave came with the industrial revolution. It started in western Europe and later spread to the rest of the world. *(still hasn't reached all of humanity). The key aspects of the second wave society are NUCLEAR FAMILY, a FACTORY TYPE EDUCATION SYSTEM and the CORPORATE *(Like I say the demands of economics shaped the society, the principles of industrial success became the valued traits of the society, the successful were the ones who were best fit for the new system and their traits were upheld in the society, Monkey See Monkey Do, we humans aren't very complex after all)
3. The third wave in a broad sense refers to the post-industrial age in the developed world from 1950 onwards. He coined many words to describe the same with Information Age being one of them.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
The first wave in anthropology is referred to as the Neolithic Revolution, demarcating the Mesolithic era (Middle Stone Age) & Neolithic era (Late Stone Age).
In the classic anthropological three age system having namely Stone Age, Bronze Age & Iron Age, the boundary between Bronze & Iron Age (1300-1200 BC) is seen to be as dramatic as Toffler's Waves. None of these are clearly recognized in Toffler's system
The transition as ascribed in Toffler's first wave is though often recognized as the transition from Iron to Steel Age. At present there is no clear delineation but the term post-industrial society (Daniel Bell) is often used in conjunction to Toffler's "Third Wave Society".
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF A THIRD WAVE SOCIETY
Though the society is still seen to be largely emerging, with the dramatic transitions over the past 2 decades we have begun to see several distinguishing features, some of these are :
1. Rolling back of the Industrial "standardisation" *(this has been followed by a change in society which earlier valued discipline, punctuality and now has a "Every child is special" attitude as they realise the importance of the creative class, read my previous blog - http://learningmalik.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-1-post-3-creative-class.html)
2. Obsolescence of the Nation-State concept *(which if you ask me was a best fit it the first wave, used to great advantage by the industrial imperialists and now has only relevance in the form of currency exchange rates & country of origin bias among other things, Also I recommend that you watch this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSj1yNZdY8 - I love this movie, will write my next blog about it, don't take every word of what he says, movie script writers get paid for histrionics)
3. The eclipsing of Monetary wealth by Knowledge & Information as the primary determinant of power and it's distribution. *(Knowledge was always power, but it is only now that it offers a person the same in the simplest of forms, he discusses the same in detail in his book PowerShift, I still have to read the book, so you to wait sometime before I discuss that)
4. Eclipsing of manufacturing and manufacturing goods by knowledge production and information processing as primary economic activity. *(As has been already iterated quite a few time, the movement from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy where no longer you are required to follow codes like those of a factory by those of the new creative regime, If you are not cool you can kiss your success goodbye. Companies are looking for culture-fits instead of the tested traits like hardworking, punctual, sincere etc.)
5. The emergence of high technologies
6. Transformation of the very meaning of Democracy with a more direct interaction between the government and populace *(The media is doing something right, the RTI Act in India is another example, even though India isn't a developed economy, presidential debates on youtube and online voting after 2000 are similar examples of the same)
Despite the emphasis on the obsolescence of Nation-States, the possible form of future states was left open. Same with the transformation of democracy.
FOURTH WAVE?
A closing word on the same is still out ... and though discussion about the same can go on, they can not be concluded
The book is one of my favorites and even though I do fail to comprehend many a concepts stated and explicated in the book and their implications, I do appreciate the work put in. I think Toffler did an exceptional work by identifying the beginning of the new generation of humanity for all of us and since we already have an Idea of the things to come, we can be better prepared for them. Besides this, the book is one of those books which form the basis of my understanding about everything else, thus hard to comment upon as us humans have a limitation that we can not analyse anything we do not comprehend. I know that 1+1 is 2 but why? I know not.. it just is.. like a law of nature. Using that understanding I can add all the numbers in the world but if you ask me about why is 1+1=2? My answer would be a shrug!! I still bow to Toffler as he atleast taught me how to add =) *(I feel like MKS =P)
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