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A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755

Social Structure in Digital Era with specific Reference to Lock industry in Aligarh

Mariya khan* PhD scholar Department of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP) [email protected]

Prof. Abdul Matin (Retired) Department of Sociology Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP)

Abstract- Social scientists have immersed their interest in the studies of emerging new due to Information and communication Technology (ICT). ICT because of has become embedded in every day’s life. The information and communication technology is affecting the infrastructure of society which is marked by Blurring Private and Public life. The Proposed paper makes an attempt in understanding the emergence of new social structure in digital era. Since the second half of the 20th century how the digital revolution has impacted in different has been examined in the paper. In order to understand social structure in digital era, it is necessary to clarify the concept of social structure, Social Institutions and its relationships and how changes in economic is bringing changes in social institution. The study is based on secondary data that has been collected from scholarly books, articles and journals

Keywords: ICT, Social Structure, Network

I. Introduction

The advent of information technologies has a major impact on social relations and society as a whole. The beginning of digital era in the late 20th century marked a complete transformation in all aspects of social structure. There is an emergence of new social structure known as network society. According to castells (2004, P. 3) Network society is a society whose social structure is made up of networks controlled by microelectronics based information and communications Technologies. The present social structure of network includes some people and region while excludes other which in turn bring about a problem of or social, economic and technological inequality. The present society has become more complex due to changing norms, values and institution under the influence of communication networks. Changes in social structure brings about changes in the behaviour and pattern of interaction in , groups and societies like in pre-industrial societies people were bound together by strong beliefs and shared values and division of labour was less but as societies evolved the economic activities become specialised with high division of labour. Face to face communication has declined, virtual reality has become a new reality in this digital era also space and time seems to shed its importance due to global networks. Changing infrastructure of society due to ICT creates a modern type of society based on science and . Production in every sector of economy whether in agrarian or industrial at present relies on

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information technology. Skill and higher education has become an important aspect of informational society as people are hired on the basis of skill and education.

II. Changing Structure according to Castells, Van Dijk and Anthony Giddens

The author in the proposed paper makes an attempt to clear the understanding of social structure in digital era by keeping in mind the writings of , Van Jan Dijk and Anthony Giddens. Castells (2010) in his book “the rise of the network society” Examined the coming out of new economy in the last quarter of 20th century on a world wide scale. He called it as Informational, Global and Networked economy. The economy was informational because the productivity and competitiveness of the units depend upon their capacity to produce knowledge based information. It was global because all the core activities of production, consumption and distribution as well as their components like capital, labor, raw material, , information, technology and markets were all organised globally through a network of linkages between economic agents. The new economy is networked because productivity is generated through and competition is being played out in a global network of interaction between business networks. The Information technology revolution is the only thing that is responsible for the arrival of new economy in the last 20th century. This informational economy is highly global which is quite different from the . a global economy is a economy that has a capacity to work as a unit in real time, chosen time or on a global scale. The world economy became truly global in the end of the 20th century with the help of new infrastructure developed by information and communication technologies but it is not obvious that economy has become entirely global. Most of the firms, production and employment still operate at local or regional level. However, international trade increased faster than production but there is no point in rejecting that domestic sector of most of the economies still accounts the majority of GDP. It can be said that economy is global because the world economies entirely depend upon the execution of their globalized core like international trade, financial markets, science and technology and speciality labour. For castells, this new economy is a capitalist economy because whole planet is dependent on its connection to global capitalist network. There is a rise in the productive capacity or growth with the use of new information technologies. The most important feature according to castells in the new economy is skilled labour. The new economy under the influence of high productivity, technological innovation, networking and seems to bring about a long term economic growth, low inflation and low employment but it cannot be said that this new economy is without flaws. The impact of new economy is everywhere or on everybody be it inclusive or exclusive at the same time. The new economy originated in US is growing on a faster rate in other countries as well like in Europe, Japan, Asian pacific and some other developing countries. It promotes restructuring, prosperity crisis under the label of globalization which is often opposed by many people. This process witnessed a major structural change in which there is a transition to new mode of development, Informationalism for which networking is the essential feature. A major structural change was witnessed in the economic restructuring of 1980s with the diffusion of information technologies in business firms. The production, management and marketing has become flexible. The introduction of lean production with the objective of saving labour, automation of jobs, elimination of tasks and suppression of managerial layers were all organizational changes aimed at recreating labour processes and employment practices. Major structural change can be seen in a transition from mass production to flexible production. Mass production is a system based on assembly line production of standardized product with the social and technical division of labour. When demand became unpredictable in terms of quality and quantity, when markets were

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differentiated worldwide and became difficult to control, when the speed of technological change made production equipment no longer in use, Mass production system became too expensive for controlling new economy and eventually, flexible production system came into existence. Flexible production system gives rise to a growing demand for a given product. The product as well as process both became flexible. The volume of production was high allowing high economic growth.

Castells (2010) in chapter 4th of “The Rise of the Network Society” analysed that the process of work lies at the centre of social structure. The informational pattern and the process of globalization affect society at large. Castells after analysing the data of G7 countries finds out that there is no systematic structural relationship between the transmission of technologies and evolution of employment levels in the economy as a whole. While Old jobs disappeared and new jobs are being created so it can be verily said that information is not resulting into unemployment even if it slows down the working time for each unit of amount produced. In the informational , new production system demands force. Those who don’t possess informational skills could be thrown out or degraded as a worker.

Castells (2010) in addition also tries to examine the new social structure known as Network Society through the notion of space and time. Castells is of view that in the network society space organizes time. According to him, time is becoming more flexible and space is getting more unique or singular since human beings are moving back and forward in time between the spaces in a more mobile manner. Notion of space and time also known as space of flows and timeless time as given by castells occupies an important place in the emergence of new social structure. Space of flows according to castells (2010) refers to the technological and organizational possibility of practising simultaneity without contiguity like global social movements, media network, and financial and so on. Space of flows is not without space in fact its structural logic is space less. With the arrival of new communication technologies, the notion of time is compressed. Castells explained timeless time by giving the example of “Global Casino” which he described as a unified global capital market since capital has a considerable skill to move between economies within second through the stock market.

Dijk (2012) in his book “the network society” analysed how the introduction of information and communication technology has completely altered the lives of people. Every is surrounded by networks. It has almost become impossible for a young generation to imagine their life without cell phones, or any of the social networking sites. Not only young people but also organizations and societies rely on it. Now-a-days people live in a connected world. Networks are dominating the lives of the people. People spent several hours in various networking sites like email conversations, instant messaging, blogging and texting etc. in the developed countries, almost every organization completely relies on networks of computers and mobile phones. We can see that every corner of the world is filled with media, social and economic networks. Developing countries like china and India are also undergoing change from pre-industrial to industrial to even post-industrial network societies. It is not wrong to call 21st century as the age of networks. Networks have become the nervous system of our society. This infrastructure of networks has more influence on social and personal lives of the people than the construction of roads for transportation of goods and people in the past but this infrastructure is not free of risks. Negative effects can be seen in the form of traffics jam, environment degradation and global warming. The visibility of consequences of choosing certain kind of communication infrastructure is less but it can or will become severe in coming times. In the of media, several communications revolutions have taken place which can be divided

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into structural and technical communications revolution. The changes that take place in structural revolution is in the coordinates of space and time. Communication in media can be fixed or can allow communications between places. The first two communications in the history of man are a switch from communication fixed in space and time to communication bridging gap between space and time like sending smoke, drum and fire signals over long distances, & sending messengers in order to bridge places. Time was exceeded by making illustrations on pottery signs that passed to future generations. Another important structural communication revolution was the development of writing that bridges gap between space and time such as electronic book and DVD. The characteristics of new media are the combination of online and offline media such as the internet, personal computers, tablets, smart phones and e reader.

Dijk (2012) analysed that the infrastructure of society is undergoing a change by the influence of communication networks. The changing infrastructure constructs the communication technology and then creates network society. This infrastructure of society is made by the elements of space and time. Barriers of both space and time are shattered with the beginning of network society. Information can be kept or stored for future generation and it has become easy to reach anywhere with the increasing use of communication and transportation. Some authors have spoken about the “Death of Distance and “timeless time”. There is expansion as well as compression of space and time. The natural environment is now replaced by social environment established by people, in the same way natural time is overtaken by the rising importance of clock time constructed by the people. Working from home or computing has now become a daily phenomenon. New media has also increased the mobility which is responsible for more traffic instead of less. The new media has given rise to the choice of performing activities anywhere or everywhere because it has now become increasingly small, mobile and wireless. The consequence of this global network structure is diffusion and there is a huge division of jobs around the world. Not only developed nations even the poorest country is connected to the internet. The result is that the jobs in the global economy have become more unmatched in terms of quantity and quality. High skilled jobs are being created which make low skilled one unwanted. Dijk also maintained that in this new social structure space and time is both compressed as well as expanded, mobility is not reduced by tele activity instead it is growing, social media increases connectivity among people. Network contributed in a polarization of class structure. Network society is not very stable kind of society resulting into too much connection and excessive inequality.

Anthony Giddens in his gave a definition of structure. According to Giddens structure is not a group or institution, neither is it a pattern or system of interaction. In this way structure is hidden and invisible. Giddens states that “structure exists as knowledge about how things are to be done, said or written. Social praxis is based on this knowledge and the actualization of it.” Giddens structuration theory offered different understanding of structure than the theoretical understanding of Marxism structure and Levi Strauss. For Giddens, social structure both enable as well as constrain social action thus it is not known as barrier to social action, but as an essential aspect of its production. Structure is both the medium and the result of the action. To Giddens, both structure and are the two sides of same coin. Structures are being produced by social practices through duality of structures. Structure possesses two important aspects namely Rules and resources which bound together both time and space (Loyal, 2003). Giddens implies that structures like , institutions, moral codes, and other sets of expectations etc. are normally to some extent stable, but can be changed, mostly through

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the of action, when people start to neglect them, re-establish them, or reconstruct them differently. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens)

III. Emergence of Social structure in digital Era

The emerging social structure in digital age is quite different from the social structure in Industrial societies. The social structure in industrial society was inflexible and too rigid where importance was only given to social classes, social mobility and social strata. Today, social structure has become more flexible. Earlier in traditional societies, social relationships were based on face to face communication, friendship, kinship and personal bond. In modern societies, relationships have become specialised and impersonal and little importance is given to values and commitment. -interest is all that dominates the modern world. Social structure witnessed a major change with the commencement of information and communication technologies around the world. Private and public spheres of living are blurring in this digital era. The new media allows working, studying and entertainment at the same time. Workplaces are filled with possibilities for study, entertainment and intermediate conversation with associate, friends and relatives at a distance with the help of new media. Workaholics can now work while travelling or on holidays. The class structure is higly influenced by networks in the digital era. It has become easy for people to start their own business as means of production are cheap. People get more jobs in freelance work but the most important asset required for getting job is skills. However, only small minority becomes successful in exploiting accessible means of production. These small minorities are ones with a fast growing business. Organizations appear to be completely altered by the use of networks like traditional middle management and supervision are being surpassed by apex executives and technical staff managing the organization with information systems on the one hand, and executives’ employees working with the corresponding systems on the other hand. There is a polarization between the top management and the technical staff. Top management have powers to control executive staff while executive staff works with selective and electronically controlled set of tasks under flexible conditions. Technicians and information staff managing networks replaced supervisors and middle managers. So it can be said that acquiring skills and educational qualifications have become more important in digital era. However, the consequences of new media also contributed for the term Digital divide. The digital divide is defined as the gap between those who do and do not have access to Internet and computers. In short it can be said that the structure of the network society is high in opposite trends. Networks are responsible for spreading as well as dividing resources more unequally than ever before (Dijk, 2012).

IV. Organization of production in Aligarh lock industry in digital era

Aligarh’s centuries old Lock industry is facing a slump due to Globalization. Aligarh’s lock industry comes under small scale and cottage industries. Presently there are 5,000 organised and as many unorganised lock units providing employment nearly to 2 Lacs workers. Lock industry in Aligarh has started declining after the entry of cheap locks from countries like china, Taiwan and Korea. Although major players of Aligarh’s lock industry like Link locks, Bajaj locks, Rose locks have managed to import new technology from foreign countries but as far as small players are concerned, they are on the verge of shutting down as these units are not technologically upgraded. The demand of handmade locks has almost disappeared as automatic locks are preferred today. Cost of

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production in smaller units of locks is high due to traditional methods and old technology used in production process. Problem of lack of skilled personnel and imperfect knowledge of market operation is also rampant in smaller units of Aligarh lock industry. Local manufacturers are worried about their livelihood as the whole country is flooded with the cheap locks imported from foreign countries but Industries operating with new technology have created employment opportunities for those who are skilled and resulted in the unemployment of unskilled workers. The demand of workers trained in old skill has declined in large units. With the introduction of new technology, the skilled workers have become unskilled and again they are Re- skilled in a way to remain employed. Thus, up-gradation in technology has created a problem of exclusion in lock industry by creating a gap between skilled and un-skilled workers.

As far as organization of production in Aligarh lock industry is concerned, it also reaches to its new level in digital era. The social structure of lock industry was entirely based on manual technology but it is now replaced by automation. Earlier it was labour intensive but now it is machine intensive with the introduction of power press which has to some extent contributed to the redundancy of workers. The process of Lock Production is divided into five stages. The first stage is of dye making in which designs of dyes are prepared with the help of either hand press or power press. Hand press is an old method of making dyes which is labour intensive in nature while power press is a new method of production which relies heavily on automation and gives accuracy to production process by increasing its pace. The second and third level is of polishing and brightness. In brightness, the new technology of electroplating was introduced which gives more accuracy than the old method of ‘Dhol- punch’. The fourth level is of assembling in which the parts of locks are fixed with the help of labourers and the fifth and the last stage is of packaging in which finished locks are sold out into the market (Matin and karimi, 2015).

V. Conclusion

In summing up, it can be said that social structure is undergoing a tremendous change in the world of digital networking. Present social structure is responsible for the increment of inclusion as well as exclusion in society as whole, thereby contributing to the force of haves and have nots. Education and skills have become prominent feature of this new economy which gives rise to the global competition. Mass production system is surpassed by flexible production system. Time and space is also losing its relevance. Time is getting more flexible while space turn out to be more singular in nature. Every individual is now dependent on ICT. People are now connected to each other via internet which gives rise to the world of virtual reality. Society is getting polarized on the basis of class structure in existing social structure called network society, Network has not only increased connections but also contributed to inequality especially in third world countries.

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References:

1. Castells, M. (2010). The Rise of the Network Society (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. p 77-216, 453-466. 2. Castells, M. (2004). Informationalism, Networks, and the Network Society: a theoretical blueprint. In: Castells M (ed) The Network Society. A cross Cultural Perspective. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, Cheltenham, UK. P. 3. 3. Van Dijk, J. (2012). The Network Society (3rd ed.).New Delhi: Sage Publications India Private Ltd. PP.1-4, 172-176, 176-196. 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens 5. Kendall, D.(2007). Sociology in our Times: The Essentials.Canada: Thomson wadsworth. pp.101-116) 6. Loyal, S. (2003). The Sociology of Anthony Giddens. : Pluto press. p.71. 7. Matin, A., and Karimi, A. (2015). In Pursuit of Alternative Livelihood: Redundancy of Labour in Aligarh Lock Industry. New Delhi: Academic Publications. pp .43-44.

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