université d’alger | faculty of economics and management | 14 mai 2005 historical overview: the...

Université d’Alger | Faculty of Economics and Management | 14 Mai 2005Historical overview:

The Information Age

3rd revolution in capitalist production Basis of “globalization” and “post-modern” society

Thomas W. O’DonnellThe University of Michigan

[email protected]

http://www.umich.edu/~twod/courses

Presented:

Université d´Alger

Faculty of Graduate Economics

14 Mai 2005

Université d’Alger | Faculty of Economics and Management | 14 Mai 2005Historical overview:

The Information Age

3rd revolution in capitalist production Basis of “globalization” and “post-modern” society

Thomas W. O’DonnellThe University of Michigan

[email protected]

http://www.umich.edu/~twod/courses

Presented:

Université d´Alger

Faculty of Graduate Economics

14 Mai 2005

i.e.,

Historical Stages of Human Economic, Political

and Social “Development”

Université d’Alger | Faculty of Economics and Management | 14 Mai 2005

Does the U.S. have a global “empire”?

Aspects of American hegemony include:

• Advanced industry & information technology • Finance & monetary – $US dollar, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Wall Street, ...• Trade – U.S. dominates WTO (OCM), NAFTA, …• Military – Navy & Air superiority, Army with Information technology, new

methods & tactics …• Culture – global English; U.S. music, film, television, …• Science – Biology, physics, information theory, social … • Energy – Global oil and natural gas • …

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In my first lecture I began with this slide:


Does the U.S. have a global “empire”?

Aspects of American hegemony includes:

• Advanced industry & information technology • Finance & monetary – $US dollar, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Wall Street, ...• Trade – U.S. dominates WTO (OCM), NAFTA, …• Military – Navy & Air superiority, Army with Information technology, new

methods & tactics …• Culture – global English; U.S. music, film, television, …• Science – Biology, physics, information theory, social … • Energy – Global oil and natural gas • …

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Today’s lecture: “Historical overview of the Information Age” … from the perspective of “globalization” as framework of the “New Empire”… and Information Revolution as globalization’s material-economic base.


5

(D. Bell, 1999)

Compare characteristics of three bourgeois eras in production, …


Today’s lecture:I. What is “The Information Revolution” ?-- Contrast: What was the 2nd Industrial Revolution ?

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Transport Trade Industry

Principal economic areas

Area (mill sq. km.)

Pop. (mill.)

Railways (thousand km.)

Mercantile fleet (mill. tons)

Imports & exports (billion marks)

Output(mill. tons)

Number of cotton spindles (mill)Coal Iron

1) Central Europe

27.6 (23.6)

388 (146) 204 8 41 251 15 26

2) Britain28.9 (28.6)

398 (355) 140 11 25 249 9 51

3) Russia 22 131 63 1 3 16 3 7

4) Eastern Asia

12 389 8 1 2 8 0.02 2

5) America

30 148 379 6 14 245 14 19

(The figures in parantheses show the area and population of the colonies)

(V. Lenin, 1914)


Today’s lecture outline:

I. What is “The Information Revolution” ?II. As the material-economic base of “Globalization,” and

“Postmodern Society” III. Competition of U.S.A. vs. developed and developing

countries (apropos ‘The New Empire’)

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8(V. Lenin, 1914)

Groups in the electrical industry

Prior to 1900

Felten & Guillaume

LahmeyerUnion AEG

Siemens & Halske

Schuckert & Co.

Bergmann Kummer

Felten & Lahmeyer

AEG (GEC)

Siemens &

Halske-Schuckert

Bergmann(Failed in

1900)

By 1912:

AEG (GEC)

Siemens & Halske-Schuckert

(In close "cooperation" since 1908)



9(V. Lenin, 1914)

Groups in the electrical industry

Turnover (Mill. marks)

Number of employees

Net profits (Mill. marks)

America: General Electric Co. (GEC)

1907 252 28,000 35.4

1910 298 32,000 45.6

Germany: General Electric Co. (AEG)

1907 216 30,700 14.5

1911 362 60,800 21.7



10(V. Lenin, Op. Cit, A. Supien [geographer], 1914)

Percentage of territory belonging to the European colonial powers (including the United States)

1876 1900Increase or decrease

Africa 10.8 90.4 +79.6

Polynesia 56.8 98.9 +42.1

Asia 51.5 56.6 +5.1

Australia 100.0 100.0 -

America 27.5 27.2 -0.3



11(V. Lenin, Op. Cit, A. Supien [geographer], 1914)

Percentage of territory belonging to the European colonial powers (including the United States)

Colonial possessions

Great Britain France Germany

YearArea (mill. sq.m.

Pop. (mill.)

Area (mill. sq.m.

Pop. (mill.)

Area (mill. sq.m.

Pop. (mill.)

1815-30 ? 126.4 0.02 0.5 - -

1860 2.5 145.1 0.2 3.4 - -

1880 7.7 267.9 0.7 7.5 - -

1899 9.3 309.0 3.7 56.4 1.0 14.7


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(D. Bell, 1999)

Data we look at today – the Networked society, increasingly the basis of all production, commerce, sales, social interactions, …, power.


13M. Castells, 2001


14M. Castells, 2001


15M. Castells, 2001


16M. Castells, 2001


17M. Castells, 2001


18(M.Castelles, 2001)


19(J. Beninger, 1986)


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(D. Bell, 1999)


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Inglehart & Baker, 2000)

“Post-modern values – Information Age”

“Mo

de

rn v

alu

es –

Indu

stri

al A

ge”

NB USA


Today’s lecture:




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Today’s lecture:




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------------------------Forms of Human Social Production:In order for persons to use a certain technologies (tools, machines, computers, …)

specific forms of social organization are requiredThese forms of organization bring forth different ways of life, different

ideologies and ways of seeing the world at different periods in historyThe different people have different relations to these means of production

this is the basis of different classes Same today – consequences of new information economy


The Information Age and Globalization:

I. What is the Information Revolution (IR)?a. Its place in history

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Forms of social production -- Pre-history

Paleolithic (Stone Age) Bronze Age Iron Age

Hunting and gathering herding agriculture

Nomadic life permanent communities


The Information Age and Globalization:

I. What is the Information Revolution (IR)?a. Its place in history

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Forms of social production -- Recorded history

A. Slave (e.g., European ancient empires of Rome, Greece, …)B. Feudal (European)

1. The Medieval “industrial” and agricultural revolution(s)” (ca. 1000) C. Bourgeois

1. The Commercial Revolution (ca. 1450-1750)2. The 1st Industrial Revolution (ca. 1780 – 1870) 3. The 2nd Industrial Revolution

Phase I: Mass Production / Electrical (ca. 1880 – 1930) Phase II: Automation / Electronic I (ca. 1945-1970)

4. The Information Revolution / Electronic II Phase I: Computerized manufacturing (ca. 1970-1980s) Phase II: Computerized communications & networks (1990-…) Phase III: ??


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C. Bourgeois 1. The European Commercial Revolution (ca.1450-1750)

Internal - Based on handicraft production methods,

not new machinery or new tools- Aristocracy and some free farmers in agriculture- Division of labor is the key to increased productivity- Demand for raw materials increased - Development of banks, credit, joint stock companies, etc.

External- Raw materials sought by Europe from around the world,

“mercantile” system- Innovations in navigation:

compass, ships, longitude, clocks, - Led to “discovery” of New World; European trade and

colonialism in Africa and Asia; primitive accumulation1st ‘globalization’- The beginning of the capitalist “world market”

- Developed surplus of raw materials from trade / colonies Social classes Ideology and politics


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Internal External Social classes

- Landed aristocracy and peasants, serfs- Guild masters, journeymen and laborers- Clergy and monks- Bourgeois* merchants, bankers small and large

(oppressed / rising class)- Kings and queens, as absolute bourgeois monarchs

Ideology and politics

_________________•“Bourgeoisie” were the people who lived on the “bergs” (hills) around the landed aristocracy’s castles •and engaged in handicraft manufacturing and merchant trade. Mostly came from serfs who became •free from the land. In general, they are the new class of towns people in mid-feudal Europe.


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Internal External Social classes Ideology and politics

- Previously: Feudal, 11th-century system- Relationships of personal authority, of obligations to one’s lord / master (everywhere),- Hereditary social rank (for masters and serfs alike)- Labor-in-kind owed by surfs, enslaved to land - Hereditary social ranks, property ownership,- No politics as such: all politics through religious differences, all law through religion, divine rights of kings, etc.- The class interests between people hidden, preserved position of aristocratic classes

- Bourgeois of 17th century:


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Internal External Social classes Ideology and politics

- Feudal 11th century- Bourgeois of 17th century:

- Individual rights: Rights of Man, Declaration of Independence, democracy

- Expressed bourgeois aspirations for “Free Market” and against aristocracy’s domination of

commerce, property and individuals- Protestant Reformation had changed Christian ideology

from a religion of 11th-century feudal aristocracy into a religion of bourgeois merchants

- Bourgeois revolutions (U.S., France, …) ended bourg.absolute monarchs; bourgeoisitself took over state directly, consolidated

internal markets in the bourgeois nation


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C. Bourgeois 1. The Commercial Revolution (ca. 1450-1750)2. The 1st Industrial Revolution (ca. 1780 – 1870)

Internal - Revolution in social production

- Division of labor from period of Commercial Revolution allowed

placing new machines into individual steps in production- Logic of division of labor was based on human capabilities with many machines, needed system based on machines’

capabilities; purely on scientific-technical basis, not human- Led to systems of machines, with division of labor based on

the machines – this was Modern Industry- Use of machines required non-human, non-animal motive force,

first water and wind power, then steam engines using coalwhich had no requirements of weather or location

- Heightened capitalist competition drove innovation in machines

and social organization of production to optimize their use External Social classes Ideology and politics


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Internal External

- Surplus of colonial raw materials drove innovation as insufficient labor to process with handicraft methods

- Modern Industry could process with machines cheaper than nativetraditional labor – cheap commodities broke down

the barriersof all ancient, traditional nations (military assistance if

resisted)- Story of “Victorian Holocausts” - Colonial and European markets to absorb

new industrial commodities.- Uneven development of capitalism

- Between industrialized nations (capitalist competition)

- Between industrialized and non-industrialized (colonial)

Social classes Ideology and politics


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Internal External Social classes

- Weakening of landed aristocracy. Capitalist agriculture grows. - Requires less peasants. Peasants pushed from land by aristocracy,

go to cities (or die).- Free small farmers engage in cottage industry, machine innovations

force them to factories in cities- Proletariat working class grows rapidly in cities with industry- First large cities (e.g., Manchester). Bourgeoisie further eliminates

power of aristocracy.- Proletariat is concentrated, similar conditions, accustomed to

cooperation at factories; first laboring class capable of organizingdomestically and internationally, unions, political parties

Ideology and politics- I will show this below – differences between pre-industrial, and post-industrial ideology and social values


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C. Bourgeois 1. The Commercial Revolution (ca. 1450-1750)2. The 1st Industrial Revolution (ca. 1780 – 1870) 3. The 2nd Industrial Revolution

Phase I: Mass Production / Electrical (ca. 1880 – 1930) Phase II: Automation / Electronic I (ca. 1945-1970)- The Electronic Revolution and Ford-Taylor automated mass

production: analog-controls and mechanical business machines to programmable logic computers (PLC) and mainframe computers

- Development of large middle class (majority in ~1957) and democratizing experience of WW II led to

- The social and cultural movements in especially the U.S.A. and Western European countries (late-1960s-early-1970s)

movements which undermined traditional, personal authority relationships in favor of democratization:- Undermined: Personal authority of man over woman, parents

over children, of teacher over pupils, of minister/priest over faithful, of majority over minority nationalities, of political leaders over citizens, etc.

(Examples: wife beating, divorce rights, work outside; spanking,orders; rote learning, explanations required, dress codes;reasoned faith; civil rights movements; Watergate, legitimacy crisis)


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C. Bourgeois 1. The Commercial Revolution (ca. 1450-1750)2. The 1st Industrial Revolution (ca. 1780 – 1870) 3. The 2nd Industrial Revolution

Phase I: Mass Production / Electrical (ca. 1880 – 1930) Phase II: Automation / Electronic I (ca. 1945-1970)

- The Electronic Revolution and Ford-Taylor- Development of large middle class- The social and cultural movements- Science: The intellectual-scientific history of information: from

symbolic logic, incompleteness, and algorithms to universal computing machines (the Church-Turing Thesis), the modern theories of information, communication, and control

- Technology: The realization of universal computing devices: 1. mechanical (Babbage); and single-purpose machines2. electric (relays and solenoids) 3. electronic (i. vacuum tubes, ii. semiconductors).

Dependent on quantum physics and material science: to develop electronic engineering.

- Social-Organizational: evolution of computer architecture, applications, languages, software and interfaces.

4. The Information Revolution / Electronic II


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C. Bourgeois 4. The Information Revolution / Electronic II

Phase I: Computerized manufacturing (ca. 1970-1980s) - Marriage of electronic semiconductor universal processors

with single-purpose machines to get smart machinesrobotics, CAD-CAM, digital-semiconductor controls, …- Japan & N. Europe develop lean management; “infomated”

(Zuboff); broke Fordist “automate” imperative- Re-opening post-war industrial competition, Japanese and

north European tactic of variety/quality, - The collapse of U.S. Fordist manufacturing monopoly,

“rust belt” (biological-ecology analogy); US refused adapt- The continued lag of USA - sociology vs. Japan & N. Europe

- Social: The demise of the industrial proletariat and its labor, socialist, and communist parties; not primarily lost to 3rd world.

- The differential effects on sections of the capitalist classes, the new inter-capitalist conflict

- Political: The collapse of mass-industrial era’s liberal politics, and energizing of the Right.

Phase II (1990s): Computerized communications and networks


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C. Bourgeois 4. The Information Revolution / Electronic II

Phase I: Computerized manufacturing (ca. 1970-1980s) Phase II: Computerized communications and networks (ca. 1990s-…)

- The marriage of universal processors with communications and the network revolution in bureaucracies of production, commerce, finance, and personal networks

- American government role in developing internet- The elaboration (2000s) of information society from inside businesses to B2B and B2-the-public.

The digital divide compared to the inequalities of previous mass Industrial era:

within nations of the Information Revolution, between these and the information-underdeveloped world.- Education. US immigrant Vs. N. European welfare state strategiesPhase III (20XX): The monopolist blocking of Information-Age

revolutions in transportation; the persistence of cheap oil.

The persistence of the uneven development of capitalism (the digital divide)

Phase III: ??

characteristics


Today’s lecture:




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The Information Revolution – globalization and post-modern society

Summary:

To be continued … but, for whom?

The “Digital Divide”

- How can developing nations participate on own terms?

- There is a Digital Divide within developed nations too - Not North-South now (Castells, 2001)

-Other key issues:New social movements, trajectory of classes, …

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université d’alger | faculty of economics and management | 14 mai 2005 historical overview: the...

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