The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture

Last updated

The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture is a trilogy of books by sociologist Manuel Castells: The Rise of the Network Society (1996), The Power of Identity (1997), and End of Millennium (1998). The second edition was heavily revised; volume one is 40 per cent different from the first edition. [1]

Contents

Summary

The Information Age is an account of the role of information in contemporary society. [2] Manuel Castells describes the shift from an industrial society to an informational society, which started in the 1970s. [3] This Network Society is structured around networks instead of individual actors, and works through a constant flow of information through technology. [3] Castells emphasises the interrelationship of social, economic and political features of society, and argues that the 'network' is the defining feature that marks our current epoch. [4]

The Rise of the Network Society

In this volume Castells analyses the structural changes to the global economy that took place from the 1970s to 1990s. He describes the 'new economy', which he claims is based on 'a new mode of development, informationalism, of which networking is a critical attribute'. [5] In this new 'Informational Economy' a firm's competitiveness is dependent on its knowledge of technology, information, and access to networks. [3] The new economy is defined by a 'transformation of work and employment'. This concept implies that there is higher unemployment in countries where technology is scarce. [3] The uneven development of new technology leads to 'social polarization and social exclusion'. This concept describes an increase in equality across nations due to globalization and an uneven distribution of technology, and thus networking opportunities and lower competitiveness. [3]

This transition to an informational mode of development is enabled by the growth of information technology and changes in organizational structure based on networks. Castells examines statistical evidence of changes in work structure and labour patterns, and concludes that while the networked 'symbolic analyst' (or knowledge worker) may seek work globally, we cannot say that there is a true global labour force since the majority of workers are still geographically confined and immobile. Informationalism has not led to mass joblessness, but it has led to a structural change in the work force, that of instability: in highly developed countries, a majority of workers no longer have a traditional work pattern, but part-time and temporary employment has become the norm.

Castells then discusses new media and communication technologies based around networks, arguing that they are contributing to a fundamental change in culture. The new development is a 'culture of real virtuality', which describes a culture that is organized around electronic media. [3] He says that 'the space of flows and timeless time are the material foundations of a new culture', [6] that of the network society. The concept of 'timeless time' refers to the collapsing of time in global informational networks, for example automated financial transactions.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Castells</span> Spanish sociologist and politician

Manuel Castells Oliván is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society, communication and globalization.

Creative destruction is a concept in economics that describes a process in which new innovations replace and make obsolete older innovations.

An information society is a society or subculture where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid growth of a variety of forms of information. Proponents of this theory posit that these technologies are impacting most important forms of social organization, including education, economy, health, government, warfare, and levels of democracy. The people who are able to partake in this form of society are sometimes called either computer users or even digital citizens, defined by K. Mossberger as “Those who use the Internet regularly and effectively”. This is one of many dozen internet terms that have been identified to suggest that humans are entering a new and different phase of society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information economy</span> Economy where information is calued as a capital good

Information economy is an economy with an increased emphasis on informational activities and information industry, where information is valued as a capital good. The term was coined by Marc Porat, a graduate student at Stanford University, who would later co-found General Magic.

The Fourth World is an extension of the three-world model, used variably to refer to

  1. Sub-populations socially excluded from global society, such as uncontacted peoples;
  2. Hunter-gatherer, nomadic, pastoral, and some subsistence farming peoples living beyond the modern industrial norm.
  3. Sub-populations existing in a First World country, but with the living standards of those of a Third World.

Network society is the expression coined in 1991 related to the social, political, economic and cultural changes caused by the spread of networked, digital information and communications technologies. The intellectual origins of the idea can be traced back to the work of early social theorists such as Georg Simmel who analyzed the effect of modernization and industrial capitalism on complex patterns of affiliation, organization, production and experience.

New media are communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for the influx of interactive CD-ROMs for entertainment and education. The new media technologies, sometimes known as Web 2.0, include a wide range of web-related communication tools such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, virtual worlds, and other social media platforms.

Post Fordism is a term used to describe the growth of new production methods defined by flexible production, the individualization of labor relations and fragmentation of markets into distinct segments, after the demise of Fordist production. It was widely advocated by French Marxist economists and American labor economists in the 1970s and 1980s. Definitions of the nature and scope of post-Fordism vary considerably and are a matter of debate among scholars.

The concept of reflexive modernization or reflexive modernity was launched by a joint effort of three of the leading European sociologists: Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Scott Lash. The introduction of this concept served a double purpose: to reassess sociology as a science of the present, and to provide a counterbalance to the postmodernist paradigm offering a re-constructive view alongside deconstruction.

Transnationalism is a research field and social phenomenon grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elite</span> Group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual, social or economic status

In political and sociological theory, the elite are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, the "elite" are "those people or organizations that are considered the best or most powerful compared to others of a similar type."

The space of flows is a high-level cultural abstraction of space and time, and their dynamic interactions with digital age society. The concept was created by the sociologist and cybernetic culture theoretician Manuel Castells to "reconceptualize new forms of spatial arrangements under the new technological paradigm"; a new type of space that allows distant synchronous, real-time interaction. The space of flows first was mentioned in The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban Regional Process (1989).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile Communication and Society</span>

Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective is a book by Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qui, and Araba Sey published by The MIT Press that looks at the impact of mobile phone technology.

<i>The Internet Galaxy</i>

The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society is a book by Manuel Castells, Professor of Sociology and Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2001. The title is a reference to The Gutenberg Galaxy, a 1962 book by Marshall McLuhan. It is regarded as a good introduction to Social informatics.

Noel Castree FAcSS is a British geographer whose research has focused on capitalism-environment relationships and, more recently, on the role that various experts play in discourses about global environmental change. He is currently at the University of Manchester. He is also the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Human Geography.

Uneven and combined development, unequal and combined development, or uneven development is a concept in Marxian political economy intended to describe dynamics of human history involving the interaction of capitalist laws of motion and starting world market conditions whose national units are highly heterogeneous. The concept is used by Marxist scholars concerned with economic development. David Harvey is an advocate of the usefulness of this theory to reconstruct historical materialism on Modern terms. It is an accepted key concept in academic economic geography.

The theory of the Information Age is deeply rooted in organization theory. This may come as a surprise since Manuel Castells is perhaps more readily associated with either the study of the Internet, cities and regions, or social movements. There are two points to be made about the parallels with organization theory. First, Castells sees himself as picking up Max Weber's mantle in both his use of historical sociology and in his style of theory. Second, the informational economy is not the direct result of the rise of new ICTs. Rather, it is the convergence of those technologies with an older and autonomous process of network forms of organizing with their focus on flexibility and adaptability as key modes of organizing. This is a shift that organization theorists have been discussing and documenting since the appearance of open systems perspectives in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Sheppard</span>

Eric Sheppard is a British and American geographer, and Professor of Economic geography at UCLA.

The Invisible Class Empire is a term introduced by Robert Perrucci and Earl Wysong in their book titled, The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream? The term refers to members of the superclass that are involved in shaping both political and corporate policies. This class of people may be thought of as an empire because members maintain an influence on society through access to a surplus of financial, cultural, human and social capital. These various forms of capital translate into the political force needed to preserve classwide vested interests. Unlike conspiracy theories of power and control, the superclass' political influence is evidenced in the reality of economic and political inequalities that maintain class hierarchies. The term, therefore, refers to "the hidden structures and processes through which superclass leaders, along with their credentialed-class allies, penetrate and dominate the American political system." The empire is "invisible" because many of the individuals involved receive very little or no public attention.

The Political Economy of Communications is a branch of communication studies or media studies which studies the power relations that shape the communication of information from the mass media to its public. PEC analyzes the power relations between the mass media system, information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the wider socioeconomic structure in which these operate, with a focus on understanding the historical and current state of technological developments. PEC has proliferated in the 2000s with the modernization of technology. The advancement of media has created conversation about the effects of colonialism and PEC.

References

  1. ↑ Castells, Manuel; Ince, Martin. Conversations with Manuel Castells. Oxford, Polity Press (2003), p. 20.
  2. ↑ Webster, Frank. 2002. Theories of the information society. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 98–99
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Castells, M., 2010. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
  4. ↑ Webster, 2002. pp. 99–101
  5. ↑ Castells, M., 2010. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. p.162
  6. ↑ Castells, M., 2010. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. p.406.

Further reading

Castells, Manuel (1996, second edition, 2009). The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. I. Malden, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ISBN   978-0-631-22140-1.

Castells, Manuel (1997, second edition, 2009). The Power of Identity, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. II. Malden, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ISBN   978-1-4051-0713-6.

Castells, Manuel (1998, second edition, 2010). End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. III. Malden, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ISBN   978-0-631-22139-5.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.