東亞新興工業社會如台灣，是否已經走向後工業化或者全球化的趨勢？本文比較了新馬克思主義、後工業主義與全球化理論等三派主要的社會轉型分析，發現三派理論在社會轉型的動力、階級結構的改變、階級流動的變化、勞動市場性別分工的變遷、收入分配的趨勢與階級政治的後果等方面各自做出了不同的假設。根據台灣的官方統計數據與1992-2007年的《台灣社會變遷基本調查》（Taiwan Social ChangeSurvey）樣本，以及新馬克思主義的階級類型劃分，本文的分析發現：首先，在過去近二十年間，台灣的階級結構發生了相當的轉變，自僱者與無酬家屬勞動者快速減少；專業技術人員擴張，「黑手變頭家」與「頭家娘」現象則在消逝中。其次，在階級流動方面，父母的階級位置對子女階級繼承的影響有限，階級流動越來越依賴文化資本的代際傳遞。第三，隨著高等教育擴張，女性勞動力大量進入專業技術位置，男性體力工人與自僱者的收入相對下滑，可能縮減了兩性之間的工資差異。最後，台灣的所得分配不平等主要來自資本主義的階級分化，但非技術工人與技術工人的差異也在擴張，資本與技術擁有者的利益提升，可能是貧富差距惡化的兩個主要來源。台灣過去二十年來的階級結構與社會不平等的變遷，雖然仍具有無產化的特徵，但後工業化才是主要的轉型軌跡。

This paper looks at the question of whether new industrial countries
(NICs) in East Asia are following the path of social transformation as
claimed by post-industrialism and/or globalization theorists. I compare
three approaches of social transformation (neo-Marxist, post-industrial,
and globalization) and examine their various hypotheses in terms of social
momentum, class structure, class mobility, gender and class inequality,
and class politics. Using a neo-Marxist schema to analyze sampled datasets
from the 1992-2007 Taiwan Social Change Surveys, I found (a) a stable
percentage of unskilled workers, declining percentage of self-employed, and an increasing percentage of experts; (b) educational credentials have become the major source of class mobility; (c) labor market gender segmentation has been reshaped and wage discrimination has decreased slightly; and (d) income inequality between capitalists and unskilled workers is still significant; the inequality between professional and unskilled workers is increasing. According to this analysis, social change in NICs such as Taiwan has primarily followed the post-industrial transformation of developed economies during the past two decades.