Professor Stehr, as a cultural studies specialist you have a special interest in the transition from the industrial society to a knowledge society. What characterizes this transformation?
The foundations of the social order now emerging on the horizon are based on knowledge. When we first introduced the concept of the knowledge society into the academic debate at the beginning of the 1980s, we asked ourselves what would the sources of economic growth be based on in the future and what would value creation look like in modern society. In the past years this concept has been able to assert itself against other competing designations such as the post-industrial society because it opens up an unusually large number of interesting questions about the circumstances and lines of development of modern societies. It is possible to apply the concept of the knowledge society not only to the peculiarities of society overall, but also to the problems of all major modern social institutions, such as the state, economy, church, family and education. The term post-industrial society, on the other hand, points in the wrong direction. Although industry, the so-called manufacturing sector, in which cars, refrigerators, television sets and so on are made, is not declining in significance, the number of people working in industry is steadily decreasing.
Who is affected by this change?
In principle, everyone. In the world of work, in industry, in the services sector, also in agriculture, in all sectors of the economy, crucial things are changing which all indicate that we are increasingly living in a knowledge society. Today, even farmers need to have a high level of education and training and be able to deal with complicated processes and technical equipment.
What is the driving force behind this development?
The new thing about the development of the knowledge society is not the emergence of knowledge-based work, because there have always been “experts”. What is new is the high number of jobs that involve knowledge-based work as well as their relative share of total employment and the rapid decline in jobs that demand low cognitive ability or are concerned with making or moving things. Furthermore, the people now entering the world of work with considerably higher educational qualifications than in the past start employment with very different expectations and with more self-reliance. That will lead to further radical changes in the world of employment.
How important are social skills in the knowledge society?
The most important qualifications for tomorrow’s world of work do not only include cognitive abilities, but also social skills such as the confidence to adapt and change. Or in a nutshell, a new understanding of self. Today’s well-educated young people show initiative, they have the feeling that they can achieve something.
What effects are changes in the world of work having on social order?
The development of a knowledge society is simultaneously a move towards a fragile society – in other words, a society in which the big institutions, such as the state, the church and the large companies, are losing influence. They have lost nothing of their traditional power and authority, but they are losing out against the individual, against small groups, which are increasingly in a position to undermine the power of big institutions. New relationships are evolving between consumers and companies, employees and employers, students and universities. That is one of the most important changes of the knowledge society. It does not mean, however, that all individuals are affected by this development at the same time. There will always be opinion-formers, always be trailblazers for certain developments that are then later taken up by many. People who decide to become actively involved will play a very important role in the future.
Where do these creative individuals come from?
No development in the history of Europe and North America can be compared with people’s experiences in past decades, particularly in the years between 1950 and 2000. At the end of this period, the permanent threat of economic insecurity that had previously affected almost three-quarters of the total population only applied at most to roughly one fifth of the population. Although absolute poverty still exists even in the most affluent societies, for nearly 40 years there was an almost uninterrupted and often very rapid improvement not only in most people’s material living standards, but also in their educational opportunity. The distinctiveness or uniqueness of the experiences of today’s generation are above all determined by the reality of a generally higher standard of education and general affluence. It is these overall social changes that form the basis for the emergence not only of a very much more extensive demand for creativity, but also a historically unique accumulation of creative people.
Your American colleague, Richard Florida, has even proclaimed The Rise of the Creative Class and describes it as the decisive factor for success ....
Indeed, creativity, cognitive factors, knowledge and information increasingly account for most of a business’s wealth in knowledge-based societies. In other words, production, with the exception of especially standardized goods and services, is being determined less and less by the amount of conventional labour and physical assets. Whether, and on what scale, existing jobs and work environments are already in a position to employ employees with growing cognitive skills and aspirations is a question that it is extremely difficult to evaluate at the present time. However, it can be assumed that employment opportunities of this kind will be increasingly necessary and possible – to the extent to which enterprises realize that jobs offering significant independence, opportunities to act and areas of responsibility are becoming the prerequisite for sustainable business success. Enterprises will thus find themselves compelled to create and not limit job opportunities of this kind.
Richard Florida claims that the “creative class” is also a crucial factor in the success of cities and regions – something he demonstrated with the development of American cities and regions. Can “creative centres” also be identified in Germany on the same basis?
An important law of social development also continues to apply in the knowledge society. And that is simultaneity within non-simultaneity. The law of a temporal and spatial separation of social developments – industrial forms of production and ideas still exist even in the knowledge society – states that different cities and regions of the world are influenced by the development of a knowledge society in very different ways.
Can you illustrate what that means with an example of one region?
Let’s take the nearest example, namely Friedrichshafen. Although it is located on the southern edge of Germany, it has everything that goes to make a creative city. On the one hand, there is an established industrial sector that produces ship engines, car components and satellites and employs highly qualified personnel. On the other, it has attractive surroundings with many leisure amenities on Lake Constance. And then an university that enjoys a high standing. The unemployment rate is among the lowest in Germany and the influx of graduates and young people is much greater than elsewhere. The people are creative and feel comfortable here.
