The distinction between services and manufacturing is therefore vague, and at least some of the growth attributed to the service sector is the result of a reclassification of economic activity, rather than actual economic change. It has rightly been pointed out that the concept of services is a catch-all for anything that does not fit into the existing categories of manufacturing and agriculture. However, this ambiguity has not prevented a number of evangelical celebrations of the service sector as representing a historical break with either industrialism, capitalism or modernity. The problem with these analyses is that, while recognising that important changes are occurring, they nevertheless fail to recognise that capitalism, class society and imperialism continue to be the defining elements of our world. The emerging global networks of electronic communication have vastly increased the possibilities for capital to trade in 'informational goods'.
Goods can be informational, in production, consumption or both.
From the production point of view, goods are informational to the extent that their production is the result of symbolic construction rather than physical manufacture. From the consumption point of view, goods are informational to the extent that they are valued for their symbolic component, rather than for physical use. So the category of informational goods includes television and radio programmes and computer software downloaded from the internet. It also includes newspapers, books, magazines, CDs, tapes and videos and computer software sold on disk. Computer hardware, televisions, fax machines and telephones, as well as the electronic networks which link these together, are also part of the informational economy because they provide the architecture which makes information flows possible.