The Myth of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

• Published in: Theoria (Pietermaritzburg) Vol. 68; no. 2; pp. 1 - 38
• Main Author: Moll, Ian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Berghahn Books, Inc 01-06-2021
• Subjects: Analysis; Community relations; Cotton; Economic change; Factories; Industrialization; Innovations; Labor process; Manufacturing; Narratives; Per capita; Political power; Productivity; Revolutions; Scientific technological revolution; Social aspects; Social change; Social classes; Social relations; Society; Socioeconomic factors; Technological change; Transformation; Working class; Workplaces; New York; United Kingdom; Germany; India; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0040-5817; 1558-5816
• DOI: 10.3167/th.2021.6816701

This article argues that there is no such phenomenon as a Fourth Industrial Revolution. It derives a framework for the analysis of any industrial revolution from a careful historical account of the archetypal First Industrial Revolution. The suggested criteria for any socioeconomic transformation to be considered an industrial revolution are that it must encompass a technological revolution; a transformation of the labour process; a fundamental change in workplace relations; new forms of community and social relationships; and global socio-economic transformations. These transformations indeed characterise the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions. The aggregate of technical innovations in the latter is carefully examined, because this is a crucial part of determining whether we can meaningfully claim that a Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway. The article demonstrates that we cannot.