Sleepers, Wake!: Technology & The Future Of Work

Australia--like Europe and the United States--is passing through a post-industrial revolution. Manufacturing continues to decline. Increasingly, we live in an information-based economy. Sleepers, Wake!, an enduring bestseller first published in 1982 and now available in a revised and updated fourth edition, confronts the challenges posed by science and technology and by Australia's changing economic position. Barry Jones, the former Australian Minister for Science and current National President of the Australian Labor Party, draws on the latest data to alert readers to the need to confront key issues associated with post-industrial and information revolutions. He examines the contraction of the manufacturing industry and the rise of service employment, especially in information services. Sleepers, Wake! assesses the dilemmas and outlines a political programme to ensure that society profits from the technological revolution.

This new edition of Sleepers, Wake! includes the 1991 Commonwealth census returns--striking confirmation of Barry Jones's thesis about revolutionary changes in the labor force. Sleepers, Wake! remains a landmark book, offering controversial analysis and ideas on issues shaping our lives: threats to human capacity, changing perceptions of work, relationships and society.