Conceitos Fundamentais
- O "Prosumidor": Toffler previu o que ele chamou de produtor-consumidor, que a linha entre produtor e consumidor desapareceria. As pessoas passariam a produzir o que consomem, como montar seus próprios móveis ou usar o autoatendimento bancário (hoje visivel nos serviços das caixas electrónicas, no multibanco e nos Aplicativos de bancos).
- Desmassificação: Ao contrário da Segunda Vaga, que buscava a padronização, a Terceira Vaga valoriza a diversidade, a personalização de produtos e a fragmentação dos média, bem como a popularização de novas formas de pensamento e estilos de vida.
- Trabalho Remoto: Toffler previu na sua obra, o trabalho remoto o famoso Teletrabalho ou o escritório em casa, bem como a transformação das habitações em novos centros de produção económica.
- Mudança Institucionais: Toffler argumenta no seu livro, escrito em 1980, que estruturas como a família nuclear tradicional, a escola de estilo classico e de mentalidade tipica da era industrial, bem como o modelo de governo centralizado tornar-se-iam obsoletos e precisariam ser reinventados para a uma nova era. Ou seja, a evolução é fruto de crises e causadora de novas crises enquanto se avança no processo da história humana.
Um livro indispensável no estudo da sociologia, da história e da cultura geral, não se deve ler só por ter sido um best-seller mas fundamentalmente pela sua importância sociológica.
É atualmente o meu livro de cabeceira e das horas passadas nos transportes públicos, nas deslocações que faço de casa para o trabalho e de lá para a universidade. Vale a pena ler.
English Version
Books - The Third Wave - Alvin Toffler
By Filipe de Freitas Leal
"The Third Wave”, is a book by the writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, who studied literature and was ironically regarded and catalogued as a science-fiction writer. The book was written in 1980 and describes the history of humanity through economic, political and social evolution in different periods, which he called “waves” that came one over another, just as civilisations succeed one another throughout history.
The Three Waves
First Wave: We therefore have the first wave, which lasted more than 10,000 years: the Agricultural Revolution. It brought a culture and a social and political organisation oriented towards the respective aims of that type of society, transforming nomadic gatherers into settled farming populations. Organisation around the family, clan or tribe was based on the land; the type of family was the extended family, and the economy was rudimentary and subsistence-based.
Second Wave: Next came the Industrial Revolution in the late 17th century. It brought agricultural mechanisation, and later mass production, mass consumption and mass education. It is based on six principles: standardisation, specialisation, synchronisation, concentration, maximisation and centralisation. As Toffler says, an invisible imprint was imposed in order to build a new industrial society, and in this Second Wave the principles mentioned above were applied both by the conservative right in the liberal world and by the socialist left of the former USSR. In the Second Wave, states became secular, democracy and universal suffrage spread, as did republics, because in the new philosophy people were no longer valued for their birth but for their efficiency and usefulness according to the interests of the new wave. Free and universal education also spread, particularly vocational education, to meet the production needs of the industrial age.
Third Wave: From the end of the Second World War onwards, the Third Wave began to take shape on the horizon of human history. It is fundamentally based on an Information Society and high technology, which will be the postmodern society of the 21st century. It is the revolution we have lived through up to the present day, in which information and technology replace physical strength, and industrial machines are also replaced by information, creativity and cutting-edge digital technology. Curiously, it was only the Third Wave that made full globalisation possible, common markets, the single currency in Europe, multinational conglomerates, but also cyberwarfare. This wave is the driving force behind the democratisation of access to information, the proliferation of social networks and niche information, but it is also the era of disinformation, fake news. Toffler was already arguing at the time that new technologies would not only change economic aspects; they would change our psyche, new ways of seeing the world, new forms of family, and the way we would exercise democracy.
Fundamental Concepts
The “prosumer”: Toffler predicted what he called the producer-consumer, in which the line between producer and consumer would disappear. People would increasingly produce what they consume, such as assembling their own furniture or using self-service banking, now visible in ATM services and banking apps.
Desmassification: Unlike the Second Wave, which sought standardisation, the Third Wave values diversity, product customisation and the fragmentation of the media, as well as the popularisation of new ways of thinking and lifestyles.
Remote work: In his work, Toffler predicted remote work — the famous telework or home office — as well as the transformation of homes into new centres of economic production.
Institutional change: In his 1980 book, Toffler argues that structures such as the traditional nuclear family, the classic school model with the typical mindset of the industrial era, and the centralised government model would become obsolete and would need to be reinvented for a new era. In other words, evolution is the result of crises and the cause of new crises as humanity advances through history.
An indispensable book for the study of sociology, history and general culture, it should not be read merely because it was a bestseller, but fundamentally because of its sociological importance.
It is currently my bedside book, and the one I read during the hours I spend on public transport, on my journeys from home to work and from there to university. It is well worth reading.
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outubro 09, 2011
Filipe de Freitas Leal
Filipe de Freitas Leal nasceu em Lisboa, em 1964, estudou Serviço Social pelo Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas da Universidade de Lisboa. Estagiou como Técnico de Intervenção Social numa Instituição vocacionada à reinserção social de ex-reclusos e apoio a famílias em vulnerabilidade social, é blogger desde 2007, de cariz humanista, também dedica-se a outros blogs de temas diversos.
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