Time's Harvest, Fall 1997

Last updated: 11/23/97
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NOTE
Before the title of your essay, include a header that includes

• Your name
• Essay number (Essay 6 in this case)
• Topic number

This header is necessary because, if you send it by email, the essay file becomes detached from your email message, and so this is the only place to identify your essay.

Essay 6 Questions
In Social Futures, Global Visions, the first chapter ("Economic Opportunity, Civil Society and Political Liberty", by Ralf Dahrendorf) deals with several aspects of society, more or less corresponding to some of Toffler's spheres of society as described below. Economic opportunity is within the business sector, which is part of the socio-sphere. Civil society refers to the non-profit sector; organizations, groupings and acitivity that is neither business nor government. And political liberty is within the power-sphere or governmental authority. The essay explores the relationships and interactions between these aspects. The other chapters explore similar aspects, relationships and interactions.

1. Describe the similarities and differences between the aspects of society in the various essays and Toffler's spheres as described below and in The Third Wave.
2. Bearing in mind that the essays in this book use somewhat different language but are basically describing the same social aspects of society that Toffler deals with, compare the problems raised in the essays and in the Third Wave. For example, individuation, social disintegration, social fragmentation and alienation all have alot in common; people feeling that they are "on their own", without connection to the rest of society. For another example, in "The Social Costs of Modernization," the contrast between Alpha and Beta deals with the same issues and approaches as Chapter 25, "The New Psycho-Sphere" in The Third Wave. In your essay, compare the issues and proposed solutions to those issues, in the essays as compared to The Third Wave.
3. The essays in Social Futures, Global Visions present many of the same issues and solutions as The Third Wave. Many of the essay authors present themselves as in between laissez faire libertarians and traditional liberals. The laissez faire libertarians generally want a market response to problems, rather than a governmental or otherwise coordinated or planned solution. The traditional liberals want a governmental response. Write an essay that takes either the libertarian or traditional liberal approach to several of the problems in the essays.
4. While the essays in Social Futures, Global Visions do not deal primarily with technology, they do mention technology as a social force. For example, E.J. Hobsbawm in "The Future of the State" identifies advances in communications and transportation as decreasing the authority of the state in current society. Identify other effects of technology in these essays

Toffler's Spheres of Society
Alvin Toffler described his view of how society works as  a system of interlocking parts in Previews and Premises, an extended interview, published by the South End Press (Boston), 1984. He described this view as his starting point for The Third Wave. In this view, all societies have the following parts, which he called "spheres", all more or less coequal:

• Techno-sphere. This is the sphere in which goods and services are produced and distributed for use. It consists of
  • Energy sphere, the energy system that powers the techno-sphere. For example, this could be human power, animal power, or fossil fuels. It also contains, for example, any buildings and machines used in energy production and consumption.
  • The production system, that produces the goods and services (other than energy).
  • The distribution system, that distributes the goods and services to where they are used.
    NOTE that, before the rise of the market, there was very little distribution, since most production was for direct use.
• Socio-sphere. This is all of the organizations and groups in the society. Although Toffler did not make this explicit in the interview, it includes the following types of organizations:
  • Families (mentioned specifically in the interview)
  • Businesses
  • Non-profit organizations
• Info-sphere. This is where all communications take place, whether oral, written, electrnoic, or other.
• Bio-sphere. This is the biological surroundings within which the soceity operates.
• Power-sphere. This is the location of political power and authority, both official (government) and unofficial.
• Psycho-sphere. This is where personal views, intimacy and relationships exist.

Toffler felt that these six spheres encompass most of what constitutes any society, but he wasn't concerned if a few aspects were not included. The point is, the spheres constitute a model, or way of thinking, about what the major parts of a society are, what the differences are between different societies, and how the parts of a society interact. For example, if technology is not an independent social force, what are the other parts of society that it interacts with? This model is a starting point -- a list of parts -- for answerwing that question.

Toffler emphasized that there is nothing magic about this model. In reality, society works by myriad small processes working every which way, and the spheres are just envelopes drawn around groups of interactions. For example, a society's culture cuts across many, if not all, of the spheres. To quote,

"For example, every civilization also develops its own ‘super-ideology’ to justify itself, to explain its place in history and the universe, and to vindicate or rationalize its operations. And that is the cultural overlay that covers the whole and helps shape its structure. That ideology is reflected in all the spheres, from family life to technology."

[One more point about this model. Toffler described his model in anwer to a question from the interviewer about his (Toffler's) views of Marxism (the interviewers were Marxists). Toffler used the model to explain his primary objection to Marxism; it was too simple, focusing on the power-sphere (class conflict). A model that focuses on one sphere cannot explain the whole of a society, unless you believe that the sphere that is the subject of the theory is the dominant sphere. If you believe that all of the spheres are coequal, then explaining one sphere does not explain the society. Similarly, if you believe in a conspiracy, i.e. that there is a group that controls the society, you must believe that the group controls all of the spheres, because controlling one only controls part of the society.

So people that believe that society is complex -- many interacting coequal parts -- will tend not to believe in single-concept social theories, or in conspiracies.]