The Coming of Post-Industrial Society

Abstract Social theorists today provide knowledge for "societal-guidance" or construct "social-forecasts" for the future. This kind of theorizing produces, directly or indirectly, strategies for planning or projections of societal models that aid in the rationalization of complex systems. By establishing rules and priorities, analyzing available resources and costs, projecting implications of alternative policies, etc., the role of social theory becomes more and more essential for the management of large organizations. In this way social theory becomes inseparable from the administrative planning and control systems and phases into and becomes indistinguishable from a social technology. It is this drift toward social technology that defines the technocratic tendency of today's social theory.