تغییرات تکنولوژیکی و اجتماعی در هزاره سوم و تاثیر بر سرد سازی

A technological revolution based on information technologies is reshaping the nature of society while globalisation has impacted on the location and nature of economic production and ownership. The scope of these changes indicates a transformation that is equal to the extent of the changes associated with the Industrial Revolution. At the beginning of the third millennium, it is possible to anticipate how these transformative changes will impact upon the way societies and people produce, communicate, manage and live. This paper will outline some of the major changes that have occurred, or will be likely to, over the next two decades, with particular attention to the way in which social institutions and social interaction will evolve. It will also pose questions about the implications for facets of refrigeration given the fundamentally different ways in which societies and individuals will interact with, and expect to use, various technologies.

Refrigeration technologies have been critical in the evolution of the production and distribution systems that have been part of the industrial revolution. As Cleland [1] notes, agriculturally-based nations relied upon such technology for market access, and in more industrialised countries, mass production required ever more sophisticated technology to meet demand. The centrality and diversity of refrigeration technology is now well-established as fundamental to contemporary systems of both production and consumption, from controlled environments for comfort through to new surgical techniques and food preservation, transport and display. But those systems are now changing, often radically, to the point where commentators suggest that industrial capitalism is now being replaced by a new, and quite different, social and economic system. A variety of terms exist to describe what is emerging — post-industrialism, post-Fordism, post-modernism, information age, network society. While the emphasis on what exactly characterises these new systems varies, the consensus is that a classical industrial-capitalism is being supplemented, at times replaced, by fundamentally new forms of production and consumption, and new forms of social organisation. These developments present some interesting challenges for those organisations and technologies which are the product of a period of mass production and consumption. This paper is intended as an invitation to consider some of the broader trends and what it means for those who produce, market and use refrigeration technologies.

The social, economic and cultural changes which have occurred at the end of the twentieth century and which are foreshadowed in the twenty-first century are transforming many aspects of economic production and consumption. The technology which allowed food products to be safely transported from the site of production to consumption, at times from one side of the world to the other, have diversified into an industry that has little in common apart from the fact that it controls environmental conditions within enclosed spaces [23]. It reflects the growing and diverse uses as old and new technologies are combined and put to novel uses. The use of computerised and miniaturised technology, the growing use of communication highways (and super highways) and robotics, and the demands of consumers and industries have driven product and process diversification. The potential for further diversification in the future is boundless, given the nature of developments in computerisation and telecommunications. Furthermore, consumer and industry demand is going to grow given on-going urbanisation and the growth of megalopolises, demographic changes (ageing, a growing middle class in areas such as Asia), an expanding consumerism as new populations access consumer products which are cheaper and more reliable, and consumer expectations about fail-safe and health-promoting foods, buildings and medical procedures continue to drive developments. Inevitably, there are going to be tensions