Showing papers by "Manuel Castells published in 2011"

A Network Theory of Power

Abstract: 1. Networking Power: the power of the actors and organizations included in the networks that constitute the core of the global network society over human collectives and individuals who are not included in these global networks. 2. Network Power: the power resulting from the standards required to coordinate social interaction in the networks. In this case, power is exercised not by exclusion from the networks but by the imposition of the rules of inclusion. 3. Networked Power: the power of social actors over other social actors in the network. The forms and processes of networked power are specific to each network. 4. Network-making Power: the power to program specific networks according to the interests and values of the programmers, and the power to switch different networks following the strategic alliances between the dominant actors of various networks. Counterpower is exercised in the network society by fighting to change the programs of specific networks and by the effort to disrupt the switches that reflect dominant interests and replace them with alternative switches between networks. Actors are humans, but humans are organized in networks. Human networks act on networks via the programming and switching of organizational networks. In the network society, power and counterpower aim fundamentally at influencing the neural networks in the human mind by using mass communication networks and mass self-communication networks.

Network Theory| A Network Theory of Power

Abstract: Power in the network society is exercised through networks. There are four different forms of power under these social and technological conditions: 1. Networking Power: the power of the actors and organizations included in the networks that constitute the core of the global network society over human collectives and individuals who are not included in these global networks. 2. Network Power: the power resulting from the standards required to coordinate social interaction in the networks. In this case, power is exercised not by exclusion from the networks but by the imposition of the rules of inclusion. 3. Networked Power: the power of social actors over other social actors in the network. The forms and processes of networked power are specific to each network. 4. Network-making Power: the power to program specific networks according to the interests and values of the programmers, and the power to switch different networks following the strategic alliances between the dominant actors of various networks. Counterpower is exercised in the network society by fighting to change the programs of specific networks and by the effort to disrupt the switches that reflect dominant interests and replace them with alternative switches between networks. Actors are humans, but humans are organized in networks. Human networks act on networks via the programming and switching of organizational networks. In the network society, power and counterpower aim fundamentally at influencing the neural networks in the human mind by using mass communication networks and mass self-communication networks.

Ni Dieu ni Maître : les Réseaux

Abstract: La conference « Ni Dieu ni Maitre : les Reseaux » est la premiere manifestation publique de la Chaire "Analyse interdisciplinaire de la societe en reseaux" de Manuel CASTELLS au sein du nouveau College d'Etudes Mondiales que developpe la Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. Comme le precise Michel WIEVIORKA, lors de l’ouverture de la conference, le College d’Etudes Mondiales / Institute for Global Studies correspond a une exigence intellectuelle majeure : nous devons penser "global", tout en veillant a articuler les niveaux d'analyse, et nous devons nous interesser a la facon dont les acteurs, individuels et collectifs, se construisent, ou se detruisent dans la configuration d'un monde globalise. Le College d'Etudes Mondiales existe officiellement depuis le 30 juin 2011, il s'organise autour de chaires, une vingtaine a terme, dont une est confiee precisement a Manuel Castells. Dirige par Michel Wieviorka, il est dote d'un Haut Conseil preside par Alain Touraine, et d'un Conseil scientifique. Introduite par Alain TOURAINE, sociologue et directeur d’etudes a l’EHESS, la conference a ete diffusee en direct sur internet. Manuel CASTELLS est actuellement professeur a l'Annenberg School of Communication (University of Southern California) et dirige l'Internet Interdisciplinary Institute de Barcelone, universite virtuelle mondiale. Apres des etudes en France, il devient directeur d'etudes associe en sociologie a l'EHESS, puis est nomme professeur de sociologie et de planification urbaine et regionale a l'Universite de Berkeley en Californie. Il a ete professeur invite dans dix-sept universites internationales et a recu des doctorats d'honneur de quinze universites en Europe, Amerique latine, Amerique du Nord et Asie. Ses œuvres ont ete primees a de nombreuses reprises et traduites en plus d'une vingtaine de langues. Manuel Castells a ete un des sociologues fondateurs de l'Ecole francaise de sociologie urbaine au cours des annees 1970. Son premier livre intitule La question urbaine (Maspero, 1972), est devenu une reference mondiale. Avec sa trilogie consacree a L'ere de l'information (Fayard, 1996- 1998), il devient le specialiste internationalement reconnu de la societe de l'information et des reseaux. Sa demarche est transdisciplinaire et allie analyse de l'espace et des mouvements et etude du role des technologies de l'information dans la production des societes contemporaines. Le modele de l'information y represente un changement de paradigme pour penser le monde social. La disparition du modele industriel des annees 70 a laisse place a une organisation multicentree. L'intensification des flux d'information entre differents points du monde conduit a la demultiplication des centres de decisions autour de nœuds de reseaux. Il n'y a plus de centralite mais des noeuds multiples de decision. La societe de l'information fait ainsi irruption dans les structures de decision des entreprises, ce qui le conduit a repenser les relations du monde social dans leurs horizontalites. La circulation de l'information ne s'accompagne pas seulement d'une fluidite du social, mais genere des oppositions, des frictions, des resistances: les societes resistent a la societe de l'information en reactivant des solidarites primaires. Recemment, Manuel Castells a publie Communication Power (Oxford University Press, 2009). Il se base sur son analyse des reseaux et des technologies de communication pour developper une nouvelle theorie du pouvoir a l'ere de l'information. Un nouveau systeme de communication a emerge: une auto-communication de masse a travers les sites de reseaux sociaux, les blogs et le chat. Ce nouvel environnement communicationnel modifie profondement les relations de pouvoir. A travers plusieurs analyses de cas (la mesinformation du public americain sur la guerre en Irak, les mouvements environnementaux pour prevenir le changement climatique, la campagne de Barack Obama etc.), il montre les consequences de cette evolution sur les processus politiques et les mouvements sociaux.

Prologue to the Special Section: Network Multidimensionality in the Digital Age

Abstract: There is a long and distinguished history of research on communication and other types of social networks. Some trace the intellectual foundations of this tradition to the work of John Stuart Mills and Herbert Spencer in the 19th century (Mattelart, 2000/1996), and others to the pioneering empirical work of Jacob Moreno in the early 20th century (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Much has been learned about a wide variety of social networks, such as the use of mobile telephones in rural Africa (Castells et al., 2007), the spread of sexually transmitted disease among high school students (Bearman et al., 2004), and the development of transactive memories in work teams (Palazzolo et al., 2006), to name just a few. Interestingly, almost all of the published research has explored a single set of objects and a single set of relational links that connect them. In network parlance, these are called unidimensional networks, or equivalently, unimodal, uniplex networks. And yet, multiple types of objects can be tied together into a single network, such as a set of people (one type of object) who attend a number of different social events (a different type of object) (Davis et al., 1941). Likewise, the same set of objects can have multiple relations as reflected in the differences between formal (authority) and informal (social) communication relations that are typical in organizational networks (Krackhardt & Hanson, 1993). The “multiple types of objects network with single relations” model is called a multimodal, uniplex network, and the “single set of objects with multiple relations” model is called a unimodal, multiplex network. Both would be considered to be partial multidimensional networks because they contain only multiple sets of objects or multiple sets of nodes, but not both. Of course, it is possible to construct multidimensional networks that have two or more relations defined on two or more different types of objects, that is, partial multidimensional

Democracy in the age of the Internet

Abstract: The way of operating of these milieus is as a feeder stream from the technology and organisation of the information process. Whether one is talking about the sacro-political ceremonies of antiquity, sermons from the pulpit, written communication since the invention of the printing press, radio, television or the Internet, the mass media, in the broadest sense, constitute public space, the space where views are contrasted, opinions are formed, behaviour is influenced and, in the end, where the future of the elites who aspire to govern is decided and, hence, the destiny of the governed. Although this close relationship between communication and politics is forged in all systems of government, it has an even more decisive role in democracy inasmuch as, in principle, the citizens freely decide who will govern them, and how and why, on the basis of an informed judgement on what is best for them and the country. This is why the fourth power is sometimes spoken of, referring to the power of the media in their influence on public opinion. In fact, this characterisation is inexact. The politicians are the ones that retain political power. The financiers are the ones that exercise economic power. The intellectual and religious ministries have arrogated moral and cultural power. Alongside all of this, many other dimensions of power establish their own elites in such a way that the Democracy in the age of the Internet Manuel Castells

Network Theory| Introduction to the Workshop: The Promise of Network Theory

Abstract: In recent years, we have witnessed an increasing interest in the study of networks, both in academia and in society at large. The theme has been particularly prominent in the media. In most cases, “network” is used as a metaphor, rather than as a concept, let alone a concept to be used in research. Thus, the purpose of the network of researchers present in this seminar is to engage in a deliberate attempt to provide rigor and heuristic usefulness by developing network theory coming from various fields of research.