Who Constructed Post-Industrial Society? An Informal Account of a Paradigm Shift at Columbia, Pre-Daniel Bell.

Columbia sociologists from the 1940s to 1970s probed core elements of post-industrial society. Lazarsfeld, Merton, and their colleagues conducted many detailed studies that contributed to a paradigmatic revolution. Yet the revolution went unrecognized at the time. Why? Many Columbia sociologists saw themselves as closer to Marx, and only years after their core ideas emerged, was the term "post-industrial" applied by Bell. They still contributed a middle-range set of propositions and findings that cumulatively transformed the broader paradigms. Their work offers useful concepts and propositions to interpret the post-industrial society of the early twenty-first century. These concepts are presented in tables contrasting them with Marxist and individualist concepts. Key examples are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]