Technology,Innovation and Economic Policy edited by Peter Hall (Philip Allan,Oxford, 1986) pp viii + 248, ISBN 0-86003-062-8, 0-86003-171-3 Pbk

The introduction of new technologies is associated with a major change of employment in society, from the traditional agricultural and manufacturing sectors, to the service sector. The availability of more and better services will, according to some analysts, generate wealth that will absorb the surplus labour made available from the traditional sectors. We believe this will be at best a short-term phenomenon. In the longer term, many service sector jobs will be taken over by computer-based systems. In addition, for most people employment also provides security, a pattern for their day, social relationships, a place to belong, and the opportunity to be involved in learning. These will be difficult to achieve in the newer jobs, and much more difficult for the jobless or those in short-term employment. It is critical that the meaning of ‘work’ in society be re-examined.

Under a regime in which ‘hard’, technological systems are programmed to treat society as a collection of individuals, we see the need to develop social, political and economic decision-making tools from the ‘soft’ systems viewpoint. These are not predictable from the sum of individual properties; they are properties of the system, and of the system alone. We also discuss analogies between societies and nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems, which we believe can be helpful when looking at questions involving invention of futures.