Protest, Riots and Industrial Conflict

Abstract

The next ten years will see the maturing of the microelectronics boom. Since the early 19th century a series of 50-year cycles has been clearly discernible: 20–25 years of depression during which a new technology is developed have usually been followed by 20–25 years of boom as that technology works its way through industry and reaches its peak. The demands of a rising standard of living then gradually overtake the expansion of the economy which stagnates and relapses into another depression, during which necessity stimulates research and the seeds of a fresh technological revolution are sown. Examples were the railway boom of the 1850s and 1860s followed by the slump of the 1880s; the chemical electrical and mass production boom of the early 20th century followed by the slump of the 1930s; and the electronic, automation and mass air transport boom of the 1950s and 1960s followed by the depression of the 1970s and 1980s. This depression is stimulating the current galloping development of microelectronics which will work its way through productive and service industries to reach its peak in the 1990s.