A Critical Analysis of Klaus Schwab’s Concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the concept of the fourth industrial revolution by K. Schwab and its role in the development of modern societies. It has been established that this concept has a pronounced conservative ideological character and is aimed at preserving and legitimizing the current status quo of privileged social groups, as well as the status quo based on a new system of dispositions. It performs projective-mobilizing, political, evaluative and practical functions aimed at forming a common understanding and building an inclusive and just society. The sociological content of the theory of industrial revolutions is revealed as an attempt to revise the established theoretical constructs that have lost their empirical adequacy in the changed conditions. It is shown that the concept of the fourth industrial revolution is based on evaluative descriptions, has no clear criteria and indicators for its diagnosis. It is argued that in K. Schwabs interpretation the fourth industrial revolution is indistinguishable from the third one. It is hypothesized that the concept of the fourth industrial revolution is not new in content and is a product of intellectual marketing. Using the methodology of A. Goudner, the critical analysis is carried out and the non-articulated components that make up the infrastructure of the concept of the fourth industrial revolution are revealed by considering the role and personal reality of K. Schwab.