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The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society
Why do we find ourselves living in an Information Society? How did the collection, processing and communication of information come to play an increasingly important role in advanced industrial countries relative to the roles of matter and energy? Is this change recent--or not? Beniger traces the origin of the Information Society to major economic and business crises of the past century. In the USA, applications of steam power in the early 1800s brought a dramatic rise in the speed, volume and complexity of industrial processes, making them difficult to control. Many problems arose: train wrecks, misplacement of freight cars, loss of shipments, inability to maintain high rates of inventory turnover. Inevitably the Industrial Revolution, with its ballooning use of energy to drive material processes, required a corresponding growth in the exploitation of information: "the Control Revolution." Between the 1840s and the 1920s came most of the important information-processing and communication technologies still in use: telegraphy, modern bureaucracy, rotary power printing, postage stamps, paper money, typewriter, telephone, punchcard processing, motion pictures, radio and TV. Beniger shows that more recent developments in microprocessors, computers and telecommunications are only a smooth continuation of this Control Revolution. Along the way he touches on many fascinating topics: why breakfast was invented, how trademarks came to be worth more than the companies that own them, why some employees wear uniforms and whether time zones will always be necessary. The book is impressive not only for the breadth of its scholarship but also for the subtle force of its argument. It will be welcomed by sociologists, economists and historians of science and technology.
508 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 2, 2017
I think I was in dire need for a book like this, seeing how much it helped me in the understanding of certain ideas. I would consider it more as a tool for learning and research than an "absolute" thesis of any kind. A very well founded and "clear" -- to a certain extent -- demonstration of how material systems --human or "non human"-- get to such complex stages of structural organization to sustain information processing.
Now my secret adoration for the postal and library systems can finally feel historically justified.
Now my secret adoration for the postal and library systems can finally feel historically justified.
October 27, 2014
When did the transfer of information come to replace material goods? What are the true causes of change and particularly social change and the “crisis of control” generated by the Industrial Revolution? Why did the Information Society seemingly occur so rapidly? How may we come to understand the past so that we may shape the future? These are some of the questions Beniger attempts to answer in his sprawling history of the emergence of the Information Society. His story begins in the mid-1800s (though he takes us back to the beginning of the universe) to the present. He performs his quest by exploring the relationship between information and control in all “living systems” from individual cells to global markets.
In the first part of the book, Beniger takes us on a journey through societal transformations in control. It is here that he first introduces the ‘crisis of control’ that occurred after the Industrial Revolution, resulting in the Control Revolution. He proposes two methods for controlling large social systems: rationalization, or the “move away from the government of men to the administration of things” (15), and bureaucracy, first articulated by Max Weber as a control technology for coordinating collective activity toward “explicit and impersonal goals” (13). He illustrates that by responding to the increasing need for control in production, distribution and consumption, technological change is whittled by feedback and information processing. This convergence of “information-processing and communications technologies is increasing digitalization…which makes communication from persons to machines, between machines, and even from machines to persons as easy as it is between persons” (25).
It is in the second section Beniger’s primary question is why has information, among all of the possible commodities, come to dominate the economy? He shows that information processing, communication and control are ancient functions that exist in even the simplest living system; however, they did not surface as a concept until the rise of the Information Society.
Though information is embedded in animate as well as inanimate forms of life, he does not mean for us to get stuck on the concept of information as the way of understanding technological development and societal change; on the contrary, he wants us to see that all living systems are end-directed, which is an “essential property of control” (35). He shows that the answers to our questions concerning information society lie in physical existence, and that bureaucracy, and thus Technology, is a product of society, which is a product of our very emergence from inorganic dust. He reminds us that “information processing might be more properly seen as the most natural of functions performed by human technologies, at least in that it is shared by every cell of every living thing on earth” (59).
In Chapter 3 Beniger will trace our evolution from inorganic dust to technological societies, and show that social existence is controlled existence. It is here he expands his concept of control to look into all social structures. He defines three problems for control: being (maintaining organization), behaving (adapting to external conditions), and becoming (reprogramming while also preserving). He uses the example of traffic control again to show how meaning is programmed into social interaction. His example shows that though the drivers choose to obey the lights, there is a “much more comprehensive symbolic system of control involving law, convention, and etiquette” (95) under the surface. He shows us that the most perfect and efficient programming still resides in genetic programming.
Beniger concludes his sweep of the history of humanity by finding that although agriculture and foraging is a kind of processing of matter and energy used for sustainability, “material processing has begun to be eclipsed in relative importance by the processing of information” (426). He does remind us here of his original question, which is why and how this came to be. He reminds us that capital didn’t displace land as an “economic base until the Industrial Revolution”. So the Control Revolution is a comparable “technological and economic ‘revolution’… displacing the industrial capital base by information and information-processing goods and services” (427).
The only critique I really have for this expansive account of technological development is that Beniger doesn’t expand much on the printing press. He gives sprawling, detailed accounts of innovations such as the steam engine, the railroad, and the telegraph and postal systems, yet he largely brushes past the printing press. He also makes barely any mention of religion. I was surprised to find this almost entirely left out of his discussion on tradition to rationality.
Also, since he takes into account such a vast view of human history, it may have been beneficial to include some kind of comparison between the Industrial Revolution’s relationship with Western communities and the rest of the world.
Beniger is hard to follow at times as he does not do a very clean job of organizing his arguments. At times it feels I’m reading the ramblings of a mad scientist. The journey would have been much more enjoyable if he had given us better signposts to alert us to his arguments. I really can’t criticize him for being too thorough; however, at times I felt I had to keep returning to his opening paragraphs to pull myself out of the details.
But all in all, Beniger provides a new perspective countering much of the pessimistic, doomsday views people espouse when it comes to technological change. His suggestions are that technology is a part of the progression of nature, of which we are a part. He unveils the irony of our labeling technology as dehumanizing when it appears to be more human than not. In fact, he shows us how we came to understand nature better through the rapid effects of our own technological creations. He even describes technology as a natural extension of man, extending functions such as respiration or memory.
In the first part of the book, Beniger takes us on a journey through societal transformations in control. It is here that he first introduces the ‘crisis of control’ that occurred after the Industrial Revolution, resulting in the Control Revolution. He proposes two methods for controlling large social systems: rationalization, or the “move away from the government of men to the administration of things” (15), and bureaucracy, first articulated by Max Weber as a control technology for coordinating collective activity toward “explicit and impersonal goals” (13). He illustrates that by responding to the increasing need for control in production, distribution and consumption, technological change is whittled by feedback and information processing. This convergence of “information-processing and communications technologies is increasing digitalization…which makes communication from persons to machines, between machines, and even from machines to persons as easy as it is between persons” (25).
It is in the second section Beniger’s primary question is why has information, among all of the possible commodities, come to dominate the economy? He shows that information processing, communication and control are ancient functions that exist in even the simplest living system; however, they did not surface as a concept until the rise of the Information Society.
Though information is embedded in animate as well as inanimate forms of life, he does not mean for us to get stuck on the concept of information as the way of understanding technological development and societal change; on the contrary, he wants us to see that all living systems are end-directed, which is an “essential property of control” (35). He shows that the answers to our questions concerning information society lie in physical existence, and that bureaucracy, and thus Technology, is a product of society, which is a product of our very emergence from inorganic dust. He reminds us that “information processing might be more properly seen as the most natural of functions performed by human technologies, at least in that it is shared by every cell of every living thing on earth” (59).
In Chapter 3 Beniger will trace our evolution from inorganic dust to technological societies, and show that social existence is controlled existence. It is here he expands his concept of control to look into all social structures. He defines three problems for control: being (maintaining organization), behaving (adapting to external conditions), and becoming (reprogramming while also preserving). He uses the example of traffic control again to show how meaning is programmed into social interaction. His example shows that though the drivers choose to obey the lights, there is a “much more comprehensive symbolic system of control involving law, convention, and etiquette” (95) under the surface. He shows us that the most perfect and efficient programming still resides in genetic programming.
Beniger concludes his sweep of the history of humanity by finding that although agriculture and foraging is a kind of processing of matter and energy used for sustainability, “material processing has begun to be eclipsed in relative importance by the processing of information” (426). He does remind us here of his original question, which is why and how this came to be. He reminds us that capital didn’t displace land as an “economic base until the Industrial Revolution”. So the Control Revolution is a comparable “technological and economic ‘revolution’… displacing the industrial capital base by information and information-processing goods and services” (427).
The only critique I really have for this expansive account of technological development is that Beniger doesn’t expand much on the printing press. He gives sprawling, detailed accounts of innovations such as the steam engine, the railroad, and the telegraph and postal systems, yet he largely brushes past the printing press. He also makes barely any mention of religion. I was surprised to find this almost entirely left out of his discussion on tradition to rationality.
Also, since he takes into account such a vast view of human history, it may have been beneficial to include some kind of comparison between the Industrial Revolution’s relationship with Western communities and the rest of the world.
Beniger is hard to follow at times as he does not do a very clean job of organizing his arguments. At times it feels I’m reading the ramblings of a mad scientist. The journey would have been much more enjoyable if he had given us better signposts to alert us to his arguments. I really can’t criticize him for being too thorough; however, at times I felt I had to keep returning to his opening paragraphs to pull myself out of the details.
But all in all, Beniger provides a new perspective countering much of the pessimistic, doomsday views people espouse when it comes to technological change. His suggestions are that technology is a part of the progression of nature, of which we are a part. He unveils the irony of our labeling technology as dehumanizing when it appears to be more human than not. In fact, he shows us how we came to understand nature better through the rapid effects of our own technological creations. He even describes technology as a natural extension of man, extending functions such as respiration or memory.
January 10, 2009
Read it once and it changed the arc of my thinking and my professional career.
In short, the information revolution (capital I, capital R) started long before we made it electronic. In fact Beniger would have it that the information had to accompany the industrial revolution for industrial tools made organizations more capable or powerful. Yet, absent sufficient information, adequately structured and delivered, those organizations would not have been able to control that new capability and power.
What information was Beniger referring to pre-electronic? The more startling insights or new perspectives for me were schedules and insurance. A practical example of a schedule and its importance in using new organizational capability were train schedules that enabled them to function first without running into one another and second, offering that capability to potential customers.
Insurance as information? I've so integrated what Beniger taught me that I'm no longer sure where his thinking ends and mine starts. But if we think of information and uncertainty as complements and if we think of insurance as reducing uncertainty, then insurance is a form of information.
Made the mistake of lending it enthusiastically to a colleague. When will I learn? I should have bought him his own copy as I would not have lost my extensive margin notes.
Bought a second copy and marked it up too. Lost that one in a fire (along with home and office).
Bought a third copy. Now does that tell you anything?
In short, the information revolution (capital I, capital R) started long before we made it electronic. In fact Beniger would have it that the information had to accompany the industrial revolution for industrial tools made organizations more capable or powerful. Yet, absent sufficient information, adequately structured and delivered, those organizations would not have been able to control that new capability and power.
What information was Beniger referring to pre-electronic? The more startling insights or new perspectives for me were schedules and insurance. A practical example of a schedule and its importance in using new organizational capability were train schedules that enabled them to function first without running into one another and second, offering that capability to potential customers.
Insurance as information? I've so integrated what Beniger taught me that I'm no longer sure where his thinking ends and mine starts. But if we think of information and uncertainty as complements and if we think of insurance as reducing uncertainty, then insurance is a form of information.
Made the mistake of lending it enthusiastically to a colleague. When will I learn? I should have bought him his own copy as I would not have lost my extensive margin notes.
Bought a second copy and marked it up too. Lost that one in a fire (along with home and office).
Bought a third copy. Now does that tell you anything?
August 28, 2021
Just now re-reading this book. Such a goldmine!
I've been reading Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism and it occurred to me to go back to The Control Revolution. They complement one another. Beniger's book covers 1800 to 1980 and attains conceptual clarity about technology and control systems, which is lacking in Zuboff. Surveillance covers late 1990s to the present and benefits from the energized present and the data control problems we are facing in this age of ubiquitous surveillance.
I've been reading Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism and it occurred to me to go back to The Control Revolution. They complement one another. Beniger's book covers 1800 to 1980 and attains conceptual clarity about technology and control systems, which is lacking in Zuboff. Surveillance covers late 1990s to the present and benefits from the energized present and the data control problems we are facing in this age of ubiquitous surveillance.
July 7, 2021
Compiled the realities that go into the "stamped out" features of our lives. Would be worth reading with Voegelin's Science Politics or Gnosticism.
May 31, 2025
It’s very good. But I had to labor through the dense detail.
September 23, 2018
This is a history of the technologies and techniques of controlling industrial processes. It’s both as interesting and as boring as it sounds. Beniger exhaustively surveys the industrial landscape, from materials processing to production to transport to distribution, digging up every kind of feedback mechanism from thermostats to cereal box-top contests and placing it in the context of an ongoing narrative of broadening and deepening control capacities. These control mechanisms both relied upon and were necessitated by the explosive growth in the speed of movements and the mass of productivity unleashed by the Industrial Revolution. Much of the “Control Revolution” begins in the same places the Industrial Revolution did: coal and steel, textile manufacturing, and especially the railroads. It really comes into its own — and develops a class of specialists in control and feedback mechanisms (i.e. industrial bureaucrats) — with the Second Industrial Revolution of the late nineteenth century, which paved the way for a mass consumption society. It’s a truly impressive work in its depth and scope.
It’s also pretty dry. It’s not completely lacking in historiographical zeal- in fact, it makes some big claims about seeing societies as processors of matter and information, organizing itself and the world around it from lower to higher degrees of control as a (ultimately futile) struggle against empathy… but at the end of the day, learning about accounting techniques, factory arrangements, and bureaucratic structures is something that only works for me in small doses. Two things also seemed to be missing. First, the rest of the world- this is a very America-centric story. It would make sense if the US was the center of the Control Revolution, but it would be good to get more of an explanation as to why. Second, not a ton about workers- stuff about Frederick Taylor and other (exploiter/)managers of labor, but not a lot about what seems like a key ingredient- producing and reproducing a labor force to make the whole thing go. That might complicate the picture of a self-organized informational society some, and I guess Beniger prefered to stick with his vision. Either way, an interesting dive into some of the undergirdings of modern society. ****
https://toomuchberard.wordpress.com/2...
It’s also pretty dry. It’s not completely lacking in historiographical zeal- in fact, it makes some big claims about seeing societies as processors of matter and information, organizing itself and the world around it from lower to higher degrees of control as a (ultimately futile) struggle against empathy… but at the end of the day, learning about accounting techniques, factory arrangements, and bureaucratic structures is something that only works for me in small doses. Two things also seemed to be missing. First, the rest of the world- this is a very America-centric story. It would make sense if the US was the center of the Control Revolution, but it would be good to get more of an explanation as to why. Second, not a ton about workers- stuff about Frederick Taylor and other (exploiter/)managers of labor, but not a lot about what seems like a key ingredient- producing and reproducing a labor force to make the whole thing go. That might complicate the picture of a self-organized informational society some, and I guess Beniger prefered to stick with his vision. Either way, an interesting dive into some of the undergirdings of modern society. ****
https://toomuchberard.wordpress.com/2...
April 15, 2021
Quite like the book, so will have to update the review after another reading. For now, have the following summary: the book theorises Control Revolution as a complex of rapid changes in the technological and economic arrangements through which formal or programmed decisions might affect societal control. Structurally, ‘control in living systems’ looks at the three areas, existence/being, the problem of maintaining organization, experience/behaving -- the problem of adapting goal-directed processes and evolution/becoming, the problem of reprogramming according to continuing changes and technological innovation. The 'history of industrialisation' section lays out a historical analysis of economic sectors through the analogy with the essential life processes. The closing part on 'information control' looks at the issues of control connected to production, distribution and consumption.
January 11, 2008
This book came at the right time and changed my thinking about so many things. I read it in the midst of a reading binge when I was obsessed with science fiction, cyborgs, robots, opera and E.T.A. Hoffmann. Somehow this book seemed to answer so many of the questions that were driving my other reading.
Beniger's book is really a study of systems - systems of production and control and the cycle that forces progress. His case studies are fascinating - he makes Quaker Oats seem exotic, and the origins of WalMart store layout seem Freudian. Perhaps WalMart store layout DOES seem Freudian even now, but this book unmasks modernity and uncovers the roots of everyday life, and in the process makes the familiar seem foreign and the natural seem contrived.
Beniger's book is really a study of systems - systems of production and control and the cycle that forces progress. His case studies are fascinating - he makes Quaker Oats seem exotic, and the origins of WalMart store layout seem Freudian. Perhaps WalMart store layout DOES seem Freudian even now, but this book unmasks modernity and uncovers the roots of everyday life, and in the process makes the familiar seem foreign and the natural seem contrived.
December 18, 2012
Information technology is a combination of computing and communication, both of which have occured to information technology in the latter half of the 19th century. Its role was to fill the gap between availability of numerous technological possibilities which have occurred by the industrial revolution that had taken place a century ago and the immature social infrastructure that blocked their realization. Communication and computation technologies had grown separately until digital computers emerged after the Second World War. Computers combined the two technologies, which drove both of them to new stages of development continuously.
October 24, 2011
My second gateway book to sociology -- the modern world is the response to a control crisis brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Technology is the external intension of the natural process. The world is about information processing and communication technology. Can't actually image how this author can cooperate all sections of human endeavor into such a book -- pretty clear though -- especially the description of control crisis in the 19th Century U.S.
December 6, 2016
An account of the deveopment of contemporary technologies of information and communication as apparatus of control for complex and fast societies.
The book is very descriptive and lacks a critical reflexion on the political impact of control on the lives of the subjects.
The book is very descriptive and lacks a critical reflexion on the political impact of control on the lives of the subjects.
July 10, 2008
The origins of the information age traced back through technology and behavior changes. A brilliant book.
Read
April 15, 2010nonfiction,information science,philosophy,history
Want to read
November 8, 2011Just couldn't wade through this one. Maybe later...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews