Showing papers by "Manuel Castells published in 2000"

Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society

Abstract: This article aims at proposing some elements for a grounded theory of the network society. The network society is the social structure characteristic of the Information Age, as tentatively identified by empirical, cross-cultural investigation. It permeates most societies in the world, in various cultural and institutional manifestations, as the industrial society characterized the social structure of both capitalism and statism for most of the twentieth century. Social structures are organized around relationships of production/consumption, power, and experience, whose spatio-temporal configurations constitute cultures. They are enacted, reproduced, and ultimately transformed by social actors, rooted in the social structure, yet freely engaging in conflictive social practices, with unpredictable outcomes. A fundamental feature of social structure in the Information Age is its reliance on networks as the key feature of social morphology. While networks are old forms of social organization, they are now empowered by new information/communication technologies, so that they become able to cope at the same time with flexible decentralization, and with focused decision-making. The article examines the specific interaction between network morphology and relationships of production/consumption, power, experience, and culture, in the historical making of the emerging social structure at the turn of the Millennium.

Toward a Sociology of the Network Society

Abstract: The Call to Sociology The twenty-first century of the Common Era did not necessarily have to usher in a new society. But it did. People around the world feel the winds of multidimensional social change without truly understanding it, let alone feeling a grasp upon the process of change. Thus the challenge to sociology, as the science of study of society. More than ever society needs sociology, but not just any kind of sociology. The sociology that people need is not a normative meta-discipline instructing them, from the authoritative towers of academia, about what is to be done. It is even less a pseudo-sociology made up of empty word games and intellectual narcissism, expressed in terms deliberately incomprehensible for anyone without access to a French-Greek

Internet y la Sociedad Red

Abstract: Internet es el tejido de nuestras vidas en este momento. No es futuro. Es presente. Internet es un medio para todo, que interactua con el conjunto de la sociedad y, de hecho, a pesar de ser tan reciente, en su forma societal (aunque como sabemos, Internet se construye, mas o menos, en los ultimos treinta y un anos, a partir de 1969; aunque realmente, tal y como la gente lo entiende ahora, se constituye en 1994, a partir de la existencia de un browser, del world wide web) no hace falta explicarlo, porque ya sabemos que es Internet. Simplemente les recuerdo, para la coherencia de la exposicion, que se trata de una red de redes de ordenadores capaces de comunicarse entre ellos. No es otra cosa. Sin embargo, esa tecnologia es mucho mas que una tecnologia. Es un medio de comunicacion, de interaccion y de organizacion social. Hace poco tiempo, cuando todavia Internet era una novedad, la gente consideraba que, aunque interesante, en el fondo era minoritario, algo para una elite de internautas, de digerati, como se dice internacionalmente. Esto ha cambiado radicalmente en estos momentos. Para recordarles brevemente la progresion, les dire que la primera encuesta seria sobre usuarios de Internet que yo conozco, de finales del noventa y cinco senalaba que habia unos nueve millones de usuarios de Internet. En este momento estamos en torno a los trescientos cincuenta millones de usuarios en el mundo. Las previsiones conservadoras preven que, para mediados del ano 2001, llegaremos a setecientos millones, y en torno a 2005-2007, a dos mil millones como minimo. Es verdad que constituye solo una tercera parte de la poblacion del planeta, pero esto quiere decir, ponderando en terminos de las sociedades mas desarrolladas, que en las sociedades de nuestro contexto las tasas de penetracion estaran en torno al 75% u 80%.

The contours of the network society

Abstract: This article identifies contemporary society as a network society made possible by new information and communication technologies which are both a necessary condition for, and inextractable dimension of that society, and pose complex results and challenges. The prevalence of networks means that we have entered a new technological paradigm and new form of organizational structure having shifted from vertical to more flexible and adaptable networking forms of activity in economy, society, politics and culture. Historical problems of networks are overcome by the new network technologies. In the network society, the integration of the core of global financial activities works through causal interactions and the ability to assess and change the value of any security in the global market. This is only made possible via telecommunications and powerful information systems which assess risks and provide alternatives. Characteristics and consequences of the new economy are outlined as are patterns of governmental power. Current processes of globalization have diminished the capacity of the nation state to control the processes of cultural, economic, political and social dimensions and the network state is emerging in a world of different kinds of networks of which governmental networks is one. The main conclusion is that the network society of the contemporary, or post‐industrial, age is centrally organized around new information communication technologies which have enabled, rather than technologically determined, extraordinary changes in the social structure.

Globalisation, identity and the state

Abstract: When it comes to identity, the cultural context, the social context and the political context are decisive. I think I can say something not only about the theoretical but about the personal too, about feeling myself a Catalan, which has for the last 500 years or so been an oppressed identity. We are getting it back at last. I feel that the way to address this issue of identity in a country such as South Africa is in the context of Africa. I read a number of studies on African identity in order to write my book. I didn't understand the specifics but I understood the importance of it.

Russian federalism and Siberian regionalism, 1990–2000

Abstract: What are the likely outcomes of the current Russian period of transition? What can an overall analysis of the various forces and levels of action contribute to our understanding of the prospects for civic responsibilities and territorial identies in a context of globalization? In a pioneering account of the complexities of the 'regionalized, variable geometry' of the Russian developments of the last decade, Manuel Castells and Emma Kiselyova map the process of the primitive accumulation of power and resources that is taking place at the federal level and in each city and region, highlight the decisive importance of the Siberian region, and argue that Russia is poised between two major possibilities: a strong, centralized state that will coopt the forces of cultural and territorial identies; or moves towards a form of network state that will include these forces so as to 'reconstruct, develop and democratize Russia in the context of a globalized economy and a network society'.

Is the new economy socially sustainable? (abstract of invited presentation).

Abstract: At the turn of the millennium, the revolution in information technology has ushered in a new economy. This economy, originated in the United States, and more specifically in the American West Coast, is spreading throughout the world, in an uneven, yet dynamic pattern. It is essentially characterized by the key role of knowledge and information in spurring productivity and enhancing competitiveness; by its global reach; and by its networked form of business organization. Well managed, this new economy may yield an extraordinary harvest of human creativity and social well being. However, several major contradictions threaten the stability of this new economy: the volatility of global financial markets; the institutional rigidity of business, legislation, and governments in many countries; increasing social inequality and social exclusion throughout the world, limiting market expansion and triggering social tensions; and the growing opposition to globalization without representation on behalf of alternative values, and legitimate concerns on the environmental and social costs of this model of growth. Information technology offers great potential in helping to supersede these contradictions at the dawn of an emerging socio-economic system. But the speed of technological innovation requires the parallel development of institutional and cultural innovation, away from bureaucracy but closer to people, to ensure the sustainability of the new economy, and to spur the new wave of technological creativity. Copyright is held by the author/owner ICSE 2000, Limerick, Ireland 1-58113-206-9/00/06

Is the new economy socially sustainable? (invited presentation) (abstract only)

Abstract: At the turn of the millennium, the revolution in information technology has ushered in a new economy. This economy, originated in the United States, and more specifically in the American West Coast, is spreading throughout the world, in an uneven, yet dynamic pattern. It is essentially characterized by the key role of knowledge and information in spurring productivity and enhancing competitiveness; by its global reach; and by its networked form of business organization. Well managed, this new economy may yield an extraordinary harvest of human creativity and social well being. However, several major contradictions threaten the stability of this new economy: the volatility of global financial markets; the institutional rigidity of business, legislation, and governments in many countries; increasing social inequality and social exclusion throughout the world, limiting market expansion and triggering social tensions; and the growing opposition to globalization without representation on behalf of alternative values, and legitimate concerns on the environmental and social costs of this model of growth. Information technology offers great potential in helping to supersede these contradictions at the dawn of an emerging socio-economic system. But the speed of technological innovation requires the parallel development of institutional and cultural innovation, away from bureaucracy but closer to people, to ensure the sustainability of the new economy, and to spur the new wave of technological creativity.