Manuel Castells - one of the world's pre-eminent social scientists - has drawn together a stellar group of contributors to explore the patterns and dynamics of the network society in its cultural and institutional diversity. The book analyzes the technological, cultural and institutional transformation of societies around the world in terms of the critical role of electronic communication networks in business, everyday life, public services, social interaction and politics. The contributors demonstrate that the network society is the new form of social organization in the Information age, replacing the Industrial society. The book analyzes processes of technological transformation in interaction with social culture in different cultural and institutional contexts: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, China, India, Canada, and Catalonia. The topics examined include business productivity, global financial markets, cultural identity, the uses of the Internet in education and health, the anti-globalization movement, political processes, media and identity, and public policies to guide technological development. Taken together these studies show that the network society adopts very different forms, depending on the cultural and institutional environments in which it evolves. The Network Society is an outstanding and original volume of direct interest in academia - particularly in the fields of social sciences, communication studies, and business schools - as well as for policymakers engaged in technological policy and economic development. Business and management experts will also discover much of value to them within this book.

Finland has moved into the limelight of the information and communication technology world (ICT) with outstandingly successful companies, the highest diffusion of ICT, and remarkable rates of innovation. Yet its social and cultural values and institutional arrangements are in marked contrast to Silicon Valley, another and better known model of an innovative region. In this book the authors explain the features and context of the Finnish Information Society.

Technopoles - planned centres for the promotion for high- technology industry - have become a key feature of national economic development worldwide. Created out of a technological revolution, the formation of the global economy and the emergence of a new form of economic production and management, they constitute the mines and foundries of the information age, redefining the conditions and processes of local and regional development. This book is the first systematic survey of technopoles in all manifestations: science parks, science cities, national technopoles and technobelt programmes. Detailed case studies, ranging from the Silicon Valley to Siberia and from the M4 Corridor to Taiwan, relate how global technopoles have developed, what each is striving to achieve and how well it is succeeding. Technopoles of the World distills the lessons learnt from the successes and failures, embracing a host of disparate concepts and a few myths, and offering guidelines for national, regional and local planners and developers worldwide.

This text challenges the belief that cities will eventually disappear as territorial forms of social organization as new information technologies permit the articulation of social processes without regard for distance, arguing that the specific role of cities will become more important, and proposing that a dynamic and creative relationship be built up between the local and the global. In this way, cities will remain the focus of social organization, political management and cultural expression, equipped to deal with the enormous social and environmental problems of urbanization.

Technopoles - planned centres for the promotion of high-technology industry - have become a key feature of national economic development worldwide. Created out of a technological revolution, the formation of the global economy and the emergence of a new form of economic production and management, they constitute the mines and foundries of the information age, redefining the conditions and processes of local and regional development. This text is a systematic survey of technopoles in all manifestations: science parks, science cities, national technopoles and techno-belt programmes. Detailed case studies, ranging from the Silicon Valley to Siberia and from the M4 Corridor to Taiwan, relate how global technopoles have developed, what each is striving to achieve and how well it is succeeding. "Technopoles of the World" distils the lessons learned from the successes and failures, embracing a host of disparate concepts and a few myths, and offering guidelines for national, regional and local planners and developers worldwide.

This text challenges the belief that cities will eventually disappear as territorial forms of social organization as new information technologies permit the articulation of social processes without regard for distance, arguing that the specific role of cities will become more important, and proposing that a dynamic and creative relationship be built up between the local and the global. In this way, cities will remain the focus of social organization, political management and cultural expression, equipped to deal with the enormous social and environmental problems of urbanization.

Manuel Castells - one of the world's pre-eminent social scientists - has drawn together a stellar group of contributors to explore the patterns and dynamics of the network society in its cultural and institutional diversity. The book analyzes the technological, cultural and institutional transformation of societies around the world in terms of the critical role of electronic communication networks in business, everyday life, public services, social interaction and politics. The contributors demonstrate that the network society is the new form of social organization in the Information age, replacing the Industrial society. The book analyzes processes of technological transformation in interaction with social culture in different cultural and institutional contexts: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, China, India, Canada, and Catalonia. The topics examined include business productivity, global financial markets, cultural identity, the uses of the Internet in education and health, the anti-globalization movement, political processes, media and identity, and public policies to guide technological development. Taken together these studies show that the network society adopts very different forms, depending on the cultural and institutional environments in which it evolves. The Network Society is an outstanding and original volume of direct interest in academia - particularly in the fields of social sciences, communication studies, and business schools - as well as for policymakers engaged in technological policy and economic development. Business and management experts will also discover much of value to them within this book.

We live in the midst of a revolution in communication technologies that affects the way in which people feel, think, and behave. The media have become the space where power strategies are played out. In the current technological context mass communication goes beyond traditional media and includes the Internet and mobile communication.
In this wide-ranging and powerful book, Manuel Castells analyses the transformation of the global media industry by this revolution in communication technologies. He argues that a new communication system, mass self-communication, has emerged, and power relationships have been profoundly modified by the emergence of this new communication environment. Created in the commons of the Internet this communication can be locally based, but globally connected. It is built through messaging, social networks sites, and blogging, and is now being used by the millions around the world who have access to the Internet.
Drawing on a wide range of social and psychological theories, Castells presents original research on political processes and social movements. He applies this analysis to numerous recent events--the misinformation of the American public on the Iraq War, the global environmental movement to prevent climate change, the control of information in China and Russia, Barak Obama's internet-based presidential campaigns, and (in this new edition) responses to recent political and economic crises such as the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement. On the basis of these case studies he proposes a new theory of power in the information age based on the management of communication networks
Justly celebrated for his analysis of the network society, Castells here builds on that work, offering a well grounded and immensely challenging picture of communication and power in the 21st century. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics and character of the modern world.

A stunning insight into the impact of the Internet and communication technologies on society in the beginning of the twenty-first century. Manuel Castells - one of the world's leading social scientists - puts forward the case that the Internet is not just a technology, but the very fabric and backbone of the New Economy, and of the Network Society. It is essential that we understand its language, its logic, its constraints, and its freedoms in order to manage and to change our reality.

The conditions in which 'development'-the process by which people, individually and collectively, enhance their capacities to improve their lives according to their values and interests-operates have significantly changed in the global information age, a period characterized by the technological revolution in information and communication, the rise of the networking form of social organization, and the global interdependence of economies and societies. This volume aims to redefine the means and goals of development in this new context: first, by characterizing the specific mode of development, informational development, that the authors consider to be the driver of the creation of material wealth in the twenty-first century; secondly, by reconceptualizing human development as the fulfilment of human wellbeing in the multidimensionality of the human experience, ultimately affirming dignity as the supreme value of development; thirdly, by examining the relationship between informational development and human development. After first setting out its analytical framework, the book brings together a diverse set of empirically-rich case studies to illustrate this investigation from across the globe-Silicon Valley, Costa Rica, Chile, South Africa, Finland, the European Union, and China-and concludes by attempting to reconceptualize development. It raises important questions and provides observations, including examining the concept of 'dignity as development', to contribute to a policy debate that should provide specific answers linked to the conditions of each society, and be enacted by democratic institutions in a concerted global effort to save humankind while there is still time.

This is the sixth edition of the BBVA's annual series, dedicated to exploring and disseminating the key issues of our time. Esteemed scholars from around the world examine the internet as an agent of change, incorporating the most current knowledge on the subject into their essays while using accessible language. They address the impact of the internet on a social, cultural, economic, political and scientific level, but also how it affects people's daily lives: their relationship habits, leisure and work. Yochai Benkler (Harvard Law School), Federico Casalegno (MIT), Manuel Castells (University of Southern California), Edward Castronova (Indiana University), David Crystal (Bangor University), Zaryn Dentzel (Tuenti), Paul DiMaggio (Princeton University), Lucien Engelen (Radboud University Medical Centre), David Gelertner (Yale University), Peter Hirshberg, Mikko Hypponen (F-Secure Corporation), Thomas Malone, Evgeny Morozov, Michael Nielsen, Dan Schiller , Neil Selwyn (Monash University), Juan Ignacio Vazquez (Universidad de Deusto) and Patrik Wikstrom (Queensland University of Technology).

Manuel Castells entwirft in seinem Werk eine Soziologie des Informationszeitalters. Auf der Grundlage reichhaltigen empirischen Materials analysiert und interpretiert er die Entwicklung von der Industriegesellschaft zur Informationsgesellschaft. Seit seinem ersten Erscheinen 1996 in den USA hat das Werk einen beispiellosen Siegeszug durch die wissenschaftlich interessierte Leserschaft genommen.

The crisis of global capitalism that has unfolded since 2008 is more than an economic crisis. It is structural and multidimensional. The sequence of events that have taken place in its aftermath show that we are entering a world that is very different from the social and economic conditions that characterized the rise of global, informational capitalism in the preceding three decades. The policies and strategies that intended to manage the crisis-with mixed results depending on the country-may usher in a distinctly different economic and institutional system, as the New Deal, the construction of the European Welfare State, and the Bretton Woods global financial architecture all gave rise to a new form of capitalism in the aftermath of the 1930s Depression, and World War II.
This volume examines the cultures and institutions at the root of the crisis, as well as the conflicts and debates that lead to a new social landscape, including the rise of alternative economic cultures expressed in the social movements occupying Wall Street. The book presents the results of a shared project of reflection by an interdisciplinary group of researchers from around the world. It contends that there is no quick fix to the current financial and political system. Life beyond the crisis requires a transformation of the mindset that led to bankruptcy and despair, and to economies and societies based on an unsustainable model of speculative finance and political irresponsibility. The book explains why and explores the contours of the world emerging in the aftermath of the crisis.

Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the Finnish model. This is equally dynamic in technological and economic terms, but combines the information society with the welfare state. The Information Society and the Welfare State is the first accessible academic study of what the Finnish model really is. The authors analyse the factors that have enabled Nokia to become the world's leading telecommunications company, for example, and Linux to become the biggest challenger to Microsoft in the operating systems market. They discuss the development of Nokia and the Finnish innovation model, with important lesssons for businesses and national technology policies. However, the Finnish model's most radical and interesting feature is its attempt to combine technological and economic success with social justice and equality. The book shows how Finland has uniquely created a 'virtuous cycle' out of the information society and the welfare state: the successful information society makes the continued financing of the welfare state possible and the welfare state generates well-educated people in good shape for the information society's continued success. This model has significant implications for all societies where policy debates about the information society and/or public policy are on the agenda. Ultimately, the Finnish model proves that there is no one model for the information age, but that there is room for different policies and values.

Taking a hard look at the crisis afflicting Western economies in recent years, Manuel Castells suggests that the very structures that fostered economic growth since 1945 are the same structures that are now undermining these economics. Pinpointing the new forms of the capitalist mode of production and the contradictory nature of its class relations as the root of the problem, he offers a comprehensive critique of American society and its economy. Originally published in 1980. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Manuel Castells is one of the world's leading thinkers on the new information age, hailed by The Economist as "the first significant philosopher of cyberspace," and by Christian Science Monitor as "a pioneer who has hacked out a logical, well-documented, and coherent picture of early 21st century civilization, even as it rockets forward largely in a blur." Now, in The Internet Galaxy, this brilliantly insightful writer speculates on how the Internet will change our lives.

Castells believes that we are "entering, full speed, the Internet Galaxy, in the midst of informed bewilderment." His aim in this exciting and profound work is to help us to understand how the Internet came into being, and how it is affecting every area of human life--from work, politics, planning and development, media, and privacy, to our social interaction and life in the home. We are at ground zero of the new network society. In this book, its major commentator reveals the Internet's huge capacity to liberate, but also its ability to marginalize and exclude those who do not have access to it. Castells provides no glib solutions, but asks us all to take responsibility for the future of this new information age.

The Internet is becoming the essential communication and information medium in our society, and stands alongside electricity and the printing press as one of the greatest innovations of all time. The Internet Galaxy offers an illuminating look at how this new technology will influence business, the economy, and our daily lives.

Im zweiten Band seines Werkes, Das Informationszeitalter' zeigt Castells die beiden grossen einander entgegen gesetzten Trends in unserer Welt: Globalisierung und Identitat. Die Revolution der Informationstechnologie und die Erneuerung des Kapitalismus haben die Netzwerkgesellschaft begrundet, gekennzeichnet durch die global agierende Wirtschaft, durch Flexibilisierung und Unsicherheit von Arbeit und durch eine Kultur der, realen Virtualitat'.Aber daneben schafft sich kollektive Identitat machtvoll Ausdruck. Sie stemmt sich gegen die Globalisierung und beharrt auf kultureller Eigenstandigkeit, auf Selbstbestimmung uber Leben und Umwelt. Castells beschreibt und analysiert Ursprunge, Ziele und Wirkungen ubergreifender Bewegungen wie Feminismus und Okologie ebenso wie begrenzter Bewegungen, die sich auf Religion, Nation, Ethnie oder Familie beziehen.
"

Manuel Castells entwirft in seinem dreibandigen Werk eine Soziologie des Informationszeitalters. Auf der Grundlage reichhaltigen empirischen Materials zeichnet er nach, analysiert und interpretiert die Entwicklung unserer Welt von der Industriegesellschaft zur Informationsgesellschaft.
Seit seinem ersten Erscheinen 1996 in Amerika hat das Werk einen beispiellosen Siegeszug durch die wissenschaftlich interessierte Leserschaft genommen.
"

Der Fall der Sowjetunion, Ausgangspunkt dieses Bandes, zeigt die Unfahigkeit zentralistischer Staatswirtschaften, mit der Transformation zum Informationszeitalter fertig zu werden. Aber Ungleichheit, Polarisierung und sozialer Ausschluss als Folgen der Globalisierung zeigen sich dem Autor weltweit, u.a. an stadtischer Armut, an der Not der Kinder. Zugleich zeigt Castells, dass und wie eine global organisierte Kriminalitat Wirtschaft und Politik vieler Lander bedroht. Schliesslich lenkt er den Blick auf den asiatisch-pazifischen Raum als einen der wichtigsten Einflussfaktoren der Weltwirtschaft. Im dritten Band liefert Castells schliesslich das Resumee der Trilogie. Es bietet auf der Basis einer ungeheuren Materialfulle und -analyse die systematische Interpretation unserer Welt zur Jahrtausendwende."

Taking a hard look at the crisis afflicting Western economies in recent years, Manuel Castells suggests that the very structures that fostered economic growth since 1945 are the same structures that are now undermining these economics. Pinpointing the new forms of the capitalist mode of production and the contradictory nature of its class relations as the root of the problem, he offers a comprehensive critique of American society and its economy.

Originally published in 1980.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.