Stages of Societal Development

Abstract

On their way to the knowledge age, human societies passed through a few stages; some historians and other social scientists have made the list lengthy, others have abbreviated it. However, each social scientist seems to acknowledge that the two greatest revolutions in human history were the agricultural and industrial revolutions, which gave birth to the agricultural and industrial civilizations. Historians also acknowledge that these two revolutions have had the greatest impact on people’s cultures and economic conditions, or on their general ways of living and states of living. There is also an agreement on at least three major stages of societal development: the hunter-gatherer, the agricultural, and the industrial stage. Nevertheless, a growing number of social scientists think that the information and communications revolutions represent another revolution in human history that is destined to transform both the cultures and economic conditions of peoples of the world. This new stage is often referred to as the post-industrial age, the information age, or the globalization age. I call it the knowledge age, because knowledge and the recent technological innovations and scientific developments it includes are the major forces changing people’s cultures, worldviews, relationships, and economic conditions everywhere.