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Manuel Castells

Bio: Manuel Castells is an academic researcher from University of Southern California. The author has contributed to research in topics: Network society & The Internet. The author has an hindex of 83, co-authored 288 publications receiving 66071 citations. Previous affiliations of Manuel Castells include University of California, Berkeley & Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, considerado alternativamente como caldo ultraizquierdista o clientela electoral, por la izquiera; despreciado como lumpen and, a la vez, codiciado comas posible plebe apatronada, por the derecha, el movimiento de pobladores parece dotado de una fluidez y de un ambiguedad que desafian el analisis marxista and las estrategias politicas tradicionales
Abstract: Tal vez uno de los aspectos mas especificos de la lucha de clases en Chile sea la importancia que ha tomado en ella, en particular en los ultimos anos, el llamado movimiento de pobladores. Definido por una contradiccion estructuralmente secundaria, relativa en principio a las condiciones de vivienda y equipamiento colectivo, aparece, sin embargo, ocupando el centro de la. escena politica en algunas coyunturas. La cual contribuye aun mas a la confusion con respecto a su caracterizacion en terminos de clase y, por tanto, de un desconcierto y a una oscilacion constante de los partidos populares en dicho frente de lucha. Considerado alternativamente como caldo ultraizquierdista o clientela electoral, por la izquierda; despreciado como lumpen y, a la vez, codiciado como posible plebe apatronada, por la derecha, el movimiento de pobladores parece dotado de una fluidez y de una ambiguedad que desafian a la vez el analisis marxista y las estrategias politicas tradicionales. Y, sin embargo, es el nucleo central de una vasta red de organizaciones de base territorial, que (dicese) agruparian, en 1972, 800.000 chilenos , es decir, mas que todos los sindicalizados urbanos y rurales en la esfera productiva. Un analisis concreto de su significacion en

38 citations

OtherDOI
TL;DR: Barber as discussed by the authors argued that the Internet can be an appropriate platform for informed, interactive politics, stimulating political participation and opening up possible avenues for enlarging decision making beyond the closed doors of political institutions.
Abstract: Never in history has democracy been more pervasive throughout the world. Yet, available evidence points to a growing, widespread crisis of legitimacy of governments, parliaments, political parties, and politicians in most countries, including the United States and Western Europe. 1 Because the Internet is seen as the ultimate technology of freedom, its diffusion among citizens has been hailed as a potential savior for the political ills of representation and participation. At the same time, critics have sounded an alert on the dangers of electronic democracy, not the least being the potential fragmentation of citizenship and the capture of public attention by elites and demagogues. 2 A symbolic manifestation of both utopian and dystopian views is apparent in the work of one of the world's leading political theorists, Benjamin Barber. In 1984, in his pioneering essay Strong Democracy, he foresaw the possibility of using new information and communication technologies to energize citizen information and political participation. Fourteen years later, having observed the actual practice of democracy under the new technological paradigm, Barber himself called attention to the deteriorating quality of public debate and democratic decision making in the biased space of the new media. 3 In principle, both of his arguments are plausible and not contradictory. The Internet can, indeed, be an appropriate platform for informed, interactive politics, stimulating political participation and opening up possible avenues for enlarging decision making beyond the closed doors of political institutions. On the other hand, any technology—and this is particularly true of the Internet—is shaped by its uses and its users.

37 citations

01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In el procesos actuales de globalizacion se ha hecho visible el declive del Estado-nacion como entidad que cuestiona estas nuevas dinamicas, and surgen otros actores mas flexible capaces de aglutinar las demandas y necesidades mas proximas a la población, reafirmando las distintas identidades culturalmente contraidas.
Abstract: Con los procesos actuales de globalizacion se ha hecho visible el declive del Estado-nacion como entidad que cuestiona estas nuevas dinamicas, y surgen otros actores mas flexibles capaces de aglutinar las demandas y necesidades mas proximas a la poblacion, reafirmando las distintas identidades culturalmente contraidas.

35 citations


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Book
16 May 2003
TL;DR: Good computer and video games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Rise of Nations, Neverwinter Nights, and Xenosaga: Episode 1 are learning machines as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Good computer and video games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Rise of Nations, Neverwinter Nights, and Xenosaga: Episode 1 are learning machines. They get themselves learned and learned well, so that they get played long and hard by a great many people. This is how they and their designers survive and perpetuate themselves. If a game cannot be learned and even mastered at a certain level, it won't get played by enough people, and the company that makes it will go broke. Good learning in games is a capitalist-driven Darwinian process of selection of the fittest. Of course, game designers could have solved their learning problems by making games shorter and easier, by dumbing them down, so to speak. But most gamers don't want short and easy games. Thus, designers face and largely solve an intriguing educational dilemma, one also faced by schools and workplaces: how to get people, often young people, to learn and master something that is long and challenging--and enjoy it, to boot.

7,211 citations

Book
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, Sherry Turkle uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, virtual reality, and the on-line way of life.
Abstract: From the Publisher: A Question of Identity Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

4,965 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a discussion of current theories that clarify basic assumptions and hypotheses of the various models of international migration, including macro theories of neoclassical economics, micro theories of macro-economic economics, new economics with examples for crop insurance markets futures markets unemployment insurance and capital markets, dual labor market theory and structural inflation motivational problems economic dualism and the demography of labor supply; and world systems theory and the impacts of land raw materials labor material links ideological links and global cities.
Abstract: The configuration of developed countries has become today diverse and multiethnic due to international migration. A single coherent theoretical explanation for international migration is lacking. The aim of this discussion was the generation and integration of current theories that clarify basic assumptions and hypotheses of the various models. Theories were differentiated as explaining the initiation of migration and the perpetuation of international movement. Initiation theories discussed were 1) macro theories of neoclassical economics; 2) micro theories of neoclassical economics; 3) the new economics with examples for crop insurance markets futures markets unemployment insurance and capital markets; 4) dual labor market theory and structural inflation motivational problems economic dualism and the demography of labor supply; and 5) world systems theory and the impacts of land raw materials labor material links ideological links and global cities. Perpetuation theories were indicated as network theories of declining risks and costs; institutional theory cumulative causation through distribution of income and land organization of agrarian production culture of migration regional distribution of human capital and social labeling factors; and migration systems theory. The assumptions and propositions of these theories although divergent were not inherently contradictory but had very different implications for policy formulation. The policy decisions over the next decades will be very important and carry with them the potential for misunderstanding and conflict. Policy options based on the explicated models range from regulation by changing wages and employment conditions in destination countries or promoting development in countries of origin to changing structural market economic relations.

3,417 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that IS researchers begin to theorize specifically about IT artifacts, and then incorporate these theories explicitly into their studies, and believe that such a research direction is critical if IS research is to make a significant contribution to the understanding of a world increasingly suffused with ubiquitous, interdependent, and emergent information technologies.
Abstract: The field of information systems is premised on the centrality of information technology in everyday socio-economic life. Yet, drawing on a review of the full set of articles published inInformation Systems Research ( ISR) over the past ten years, we argue that the field has not deeply engaged its core subject matter--the information technology (IT) artifact. Instead, we find that IS researchers tend to give central theoretical significance to the context (within which some usually unspecified technology is seen to operate), the discrete processing capabilities of the artifact (as separable from its context or use), or the dependent variable (that which is posited to be affected or changed as technology is developed, implemented, and used). The IT artifact itself tends to disappear from view, be taken for granted, or is presumed to be unproblematic once it is built and installed. After discussing the implications of our findings, we propose a research direction for the IS field that begins to take technology as seriously as its effects, context, and capabilities. In particular, we propose that IS researchers begin to theorize specifically about IT artifacts, and then incorporate these theories explicitly into their studies. We believe that such a research direction is critical if IS research is to make a significant contribution to the understanding of a world increasingly suffused with ubiquitous, interdependent, and emergent information technologies.

2,849 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 2002-Antipode
TL;DR: In this article, a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism is presented, emphasizing the path-dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political-economic space.
Abstract: This essay elaborates a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism that emphasizes (a) the path–dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and (b) the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political–economic space. We begin by presenting the methodological foundations for an approach to the geographies of what we term “actually existing neoliberalism.” In contrast to neoliberal ideology, in which market forces are assumed to operate according to immutable laws no matter where they are “unleashed,” we emphasize the contextual embeddedness of neoliberal restructuring projects insofar as they have been produced within national, regional, and local contexts defined by the legacies of inherited institutional frameworks, policy regimes, regulatory practices, and political struggles. An adequate understanding of actually existing neoliberalism must therefore explore the path–dependent, contextually specific interactions between inherited regulatory landscapes and emergent neoliberal, market–oriented restructuring projects at a broad range of geographical scales. These considerations lead to a conceptualization of contemporary neoliberalization processes as catalysts and expressions of an ongoing creative destruction of political–economic space at multiple geographical scales. While the neoliberal restructuring projects of the last two decades have not established a coherent basis for sustainable capitalist growth, it can be argued that they have nonetheless profoundly reworked the institutional infrastructures upon which Fordist–Keynesian capitalism was grounded. The concept of creative destruction is presented as a useful means for describing the geographically uneven, socially regressive, and politically volatile trajectories of institutional/spatial change that have been crystallizing under these conditions. The essay concludes by discussing the role of urban spaces within the contradictory and chronically unstable geographies of actually existing neoliberalism. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, we suggest, cities have become strategically crucial geographical arenas in which a variety of neoliberal initiatives—along with closely intertwined strategies of crisis displacement and crisis management—have been articulated.

2,818 citations