

It is the time when the new technologies irrupt in a maturing economy and advance like a bulldozer disrupting the established fabric and articulating new industrial networks, setting up new infrastructures and spreading new and superior ways of doing things. In very broad terms, each surge goes through two periods of a very different nature, each lasting about three decades.Īs shown in Figure 4.1, the first half can be termed the installation period. Only when that battle has been practically won can the paradigm really diffuse across the whole economy of the core nations and later across the world… The process of installation of each new techno-economic paradigm in society begins with a battle against the power of the old, which is ingrained in the established production structure and embedded in the socio-cultural environment and in the institutional framework. In real life, the trajectory of a technological revolution is not as smooth and continuous as the stylized curve presented in Figure 3.1. However, this process is usually disjointed Perez writes:

Perez’s argument was that the four technological revolutions that proceeded the Age of Information and Telecommunications followed a similar cycle: The Age of Information and Telecommunications began in the United States in 1971, with the announcement of the Intel microprocessor in Santa Clara, California.The Age of Oil, the Automobile, and Mass Production began in the United States in 1908, with the production of the first Ford Model-T in Detroit, Michigan.The Age of Steel, Electricity and Heavy Engineering began in the United States in 1875, with the opening of the Carnegie Bessemer steel plant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The Age of Steam and Railways began in the United Kingdom in 1829, with the test of the ‘Rocket’ steam engine for the Liverpool-Manchester railway.The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in 1771, with the opening of Arkwright’s mill in Cromford.Perez’s thesis was based on over 200 years of history and the patterns she identified in four previous technological revolutions: 1 Jerry Neumann has written an excellent overview of Perez’s theory at Reaction Wheel I highly recommend reading that first if you are unfamiliar with Perez’s work.

Note: the following is a woefully incomplete summary of what is a brilliant - and very readable - book. Thank You.!! Very Good Logitech eyetoy driver.!!Įxcellent Logitech eyetoy guide as always.What was especially remarkable about Carlota Perez’s Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital was its timing: 2002 was the middle of the cold winter that followed the Dotcom Bubble, and here was Perez arguing that the IT revolution and the Internet were not in fact dead ideas, but in the middle of a natural transition to a new Golden Age. I was looking this driver all day, thanks!
