A society whose economy is no longer based on manufacturing. In 1973, in The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, influential American sociologist Bell, Daniel argued that the transition in the US economy away from manufacturing towards what he called the service sector (but would today be known as the information economy) was generalized and the economy as a whole went through a phase change. Writing at a time of real crisis in the global economy brought on by the so-called âOil Shockâ (a massive spike in the cost of energy engineered by the OPEC member nations), which had a profoundly negative effect on manufacturing, Bellâs work seemed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly. The term itself was coined by French sociologist Touraine, Alain in The Post-Industrial Society. Tomorrowâs Social History: Classes, Conflicts and Culture in the Programmed Society (1969). Both Bell and Touraine argue that the transformation in the economy brings with it a transformation in society---in the preceding industrial period it was the antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie that gave society its cultural coherence. In post-industrial society, the blue-collar worker recedes in importance, and his or her place is taken by the so-called white-collar worker, but now there isnât a clear-cut class distinction to shape society because there is no real significant difference between them and the bourgeoisie. Theorists, such as Jameson, Fredric and Harvey, David, would take this same moment as the starting point for what they prefer to call postmodernism.