Manuel Castells is a sociologist frequently associated with information contemporary society and marketing communications research. In this essay I will be evaluating his theory on "the network society", and outlining any relevant criticisms. By looking at Castells' upbringing and influences it becomes clear how he came to be concerned with the theory of the network modern culture. He grew up in Barcelona and was politically active in the student anti-Franco movements; this politics activism compelled him to flee Spain for France. He completed his studies in Paris and shifted to the School of Paris achieving a doctorate in sociology. Having did the trick at both the University of Paris and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, he later relocated to California as he was given two professorships at Berkeley. Castells' move to California was highly relevant as he was located near Silicon Valley, that was where the designed circuit, microprocessor, microcomputer and a great many other key systems, were developed mainly in the 80s. It's been the website of electronic creativity for over four decades, sustained by about a quarter of your million it workers. Inspired by the thought of Alain Touraine, Castells was an integral developer in a variety of Marxist urban sociology that emphasises the role of interpersonal motions in the conflictive change of the city. Transcending Marxist set ups in the early 80s, he concentrated upon the role of new solutions in the restructuring of your current economic climate. His theory of the network world is relevant to us as most of us belong to a large number of networks, whether it is a school, a university or college, a nationality or an profession, and all systems require some form of coordination.
According to Castells, systems constitute the new sociable morphology of our own societies. He believes there is a radical disconnectedness in modern society causing a larger sense of autonomy credited to technology. Castells thinks that "we could moving from the professional age into the information time" (Castells, 2000, 5). He talks of how this historical change was as a result of the advent of new information solutions particularly those for communication and biological purposes. He observed how space and time are being transcended in communal practises because of the ability to do everything from everywhere because of the capability for ubiquitous perpetual contact in communication systems. "A number of major social, scientific, economic and ethnic transformations came along to give climb to a new form of world" (Castells 2000, 17). Castells first brought up the term "network culture" in his publication "The Climb of the Network World: THE INFO Age: Economy, Society and Culture" that was the first part of his Information Age trilogy. He said, "This is in terms of any network culture is a society where in fact the key social constructions and activities are prepared around electronically processed information networks. So it's not simply about sites or social networks, because social networks have been very old varieties of social group, it's about social networks which process and manage information and are using micro-electronic based technology" (Castells, 1996, 34). To put it simply a network modern culture is a modern culture whose social composition is made of networks power by microelectronic established information and communication technologies. While he points out that networks aren't a new form of public organization, they have grown to be an integral feature of public morphology, essentially they can be new types of old processes. He remarks this is basically credited to communication technology, including the internet or mobile telephones, which increase decentralization of businesses and focusing of control which in turn increase the efficiency of networks relative to hierarchical structures. "Communication networks are the habits of contact that are manufactured by moves of emails among communicators through time and space, " (Monge and Contractor, 2003, 39). "The Climb of the Network Culture: THE INFO Age: Economy, Culture and Culture" offers an account of the economical and public dynamics of the new age of information. It demonstrates research done in USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Castells discussions of the way the global economy is currently seen as a the instantaneous move and exchange of information, capital and social communication. These flows order and condition both consumption and production. The sites themselves indicate and create distinctive ethnicities. Both they and the information they carry are largely beyond national regulation. Which means that society's dependence on these new methods of informational movement can give tremendous capacity to those able to control them to control us, "Networks have become the predominant organizat ional form of every domain of real human activity" (Castells, 1996, 101).
To better understand Castells theory of an network world it is helpful to look back to his work of 1989, "The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban Regional Process". In this particular work he mentions the space of moves which performs a central role in his vision of the network contemporary society. Castells is an urban geographer, which is why his study of space is central to his work. He identifies the space of moves as a "high-level ethnical abstraction of space and time with strong relationships to the digital years modern culture" (Castells, 1989, 23). He wanted to "reconceptualise new types of spatial arrangements under the new technological paradigm" (Castells, 1989, 146). He thought this is relevant in that maybe it's seen as a new kind of space that allowed faraway, simultaneous, real-time discussion, unlike anything that 's been around previously. Therefore the space of moves plays a central role in Castells' eyesight of the network society, it is just a network of communications, identified by hubs where these sites intersect. Societies aren't attached to a particular place but instead to the space of moves. He argues that "while organizations are located in places, the organizational logic is placeless, being fundamentally dependent on the space of flows that characterizes information systems" (Castells in Nyiri, 2004, 23). This space of flows tests what Castells talks of as the area of places, which include regional neighborhoods and nation claims. It could be seen that "while the space of flows can be abstract in public, ethnic, and historical terms, places are condensations of human history, culture and subject" (Castells, 1990, 14). In this way opposition to the space of flows of various systems manifests itself in the form of communities structured around places. So as the space of flows contains global circuits of information including the internet, the area of places is dominated by decisions and has bounded territories or relatively set localities. Barry Wellman pulls on Castells ideas and thinks technology have shrunk everything; he talks of how areas have become global instead of local and are mounted on technological not physical links. Wellman says Castells observations have serious implications for what community means in modern-day contemporary society. Through these meanings Castells developed the idea of amazing time, which he noticed as an index of sociable change. He presumed time has become more complicated and sequences of life are becoming scrambled. Space and time are fundamental experiences of interpersonal life but are being transcended in social practise, for example users of "Skype" can talk with each other in virtually any amount of different countries at anybody time and all communication is instant.
For Castells, networks have become the basic units of modern society so the network society is seen to be more than just the information population that was originally mentioned. Castells argues that it's not only the technology that characterizes modern societies, but also ethnic, economic and political aspects that when combined can create the network contemporary society, "Influences such as religion, cultural upbringing, political organizations, and sociable status all condition the network contemporary society" (Castells, 1990, 86). Societies can be designed by these aspects in many ways. Relating to Castells, power now is based on various sites, "the reasoning of the network is more powerful than the forces of the network" (Castells in Weber, 2002, 104). Many networks today, for example financial capital, have grown to be global in size. Sites can play a key role within businesses now, capital such as staff, consultants, and other businesses can be helped bring together to focus on a specific job, and when it is finished they split and are reallocated to a fresh task becoming connected to a new network. Although Castells is more concerned with the macro instead of the micro in world he admits it is important to evaluate the talents of celebrities in the network whether it's a company, a person, the government or any other corporation. He determines involvement in the network by the level to which the actor can contribute to the goals of this particular network. "This new environment requires skilled flexible workers: the business man provides way to the adaptable woman" (Castells, 2000, 12). This creates a binary process of addition and exclusion from these systems whereby the people with little or nothing to provide their network, are excluded. A significant aspect of the network population is the links between the networks of individuals. Isolated networks are fragile and being connected is a type of power. Belonging to more than one network is definitely useful, however in the network contemporary society, due to binary nature of exclusion, teamed with the actual fact that it's better to exclude, inclusion is seen to give more ability than it have previously. At the same time though electronic communication makes it much simpler to join a network, for example group emails or threads on social network sites, which can instead devalue addition.
Like most communal theorists Castells has captivated various criticisms regarding aspects of his theory of the network modern culture; for example his examination of the role of information, creation and the link between capitalism and informational labour. Many refute his claim that the present financial and public situation is a fresh era, but instead is merely an expansion of commercial capitalism. Many feel there's a risk for Castells in concentrating on the radical novelty of the post industrial society, and looking over key continuities between it and previous socio-economic formations. Dan Schiller argues that "the primary economical drive in network societies continues to be the desire to assemble private capital; the marketplace imperatives of competition and co changes still dominate, and the communal and economical inequalities characteristic of market economies tend to widen rather than close" (Schiller, 2000, 48). Both academics and critics such as Mitchell Kapor, creator of the Electronic Frontier Groundwork have attempted to read Castells work but have given up due to its intensive data collection and lack of synthesis, "It might be profound, but it is certainly opaque" ( Kapor, Internet Galaxy, 2008 ). Teacher Martin Kenney, a member of the faculty of Applied Behavioural Sciences at UC Davis who may have studied the Information Era trilogy says, "When Castells does draw conclusions; they could be so aphoristic that their correct interpretation can be elusive" (Kenney, Internet Galaxy, 2008).
Both Webster and Garnham have accused Castells of technological determinism. The theoretical problem Webster poses is the relative autonomy of the method of development. The method of development is spoken of as influencing public relationships however isn't determined by capitalism and Castells says it can survive it, "the new overall economy may outlast the mode of development where it was born" (Castells, 2000, 11). Webster believes therefore that the setting of development continues alone technological reasoning so "in key respects, is beyond the reach of politics" (Webster, 2004, 17), and therefore feels regardless of Castells' assertions to the contrary, his theoretical basis is technologically determinist. Garnham's criticism focuses on productivity. Castells states that the network population depends on increasing production which occurs due to it. Garnham says of this, "you can find little evidence of such productivity rises" and goes on to convey, "insufficient a well balanced calculable relationship between the principles of outputs sits behind the historical complications in co modifying information" (Garnham, 2004, 191). Garnham also declares that productivity can be regarded in conditions of consumption, investment and the relations of production. Both Garnham and Webster criticize the seemingly autonomous role of the mode of development, highlighting instead the importance in determining the role of the setting of development, "the informational setting of development is developed for and put at the service of a set of property relations and the purpose of build up, not vice versa" (Garnham, 2004, 174). Webster and Garnham deliver convincing critiques of Castells' theory of your network society. I believe the network modern culture is more realistically a development of our commercial society as opposed to a totally new build. Capitalism remains the economic basis for our culture; the uprising of capitalism's electricity in various sites can be an event that was happening during Marx's original critique of the cultural system in the 19th century.
In an article written by Jack Fischer, Castells says he has been frustrated there's not been more criticism of his work on the network modern culture. "What criticism there has been has referred to the relative difficulty of reading the task and of his adamant refusal to offer prescriptions" (Fischer, Manuel Castells Brave New World, 1999). Castells said on the problem, "As beautiful as it seems, I am unaware of any major criticism in published reviews, and I am aware of a large number of reviews in many countries. In fact, it is a bit disappointing, since I am certain there are many weaknesses in the work, and I'd like to issue it more" (Castells in Fischer, Manuel Castells Brave " NEW WORLD ", 1999).
Manuel Castells theory of the network society is highly relevant in understanding modern forms of social interaction. "It permeates most societies on earth, in various cultural and institutional manifestations, as the professional world characterized the public framework of both capitalism and statism for the majority of the twentieth century" (Castells, 2000, 22). His evaluation of the technical, cultural, and institutional transformation of societies around the world to network societies provides useful insights into a constantly changing world of communications. Castells hypothesises that there is little potential for sociable change within any given network. He says himself that the fundamental problem in the network culture is "that political institutions aren't the site of power any more. The real power is the power of cultural rules, embedded in systems" (Castells 2000, 25). The thought of the network culture makes us think about how exactly a lot of our lives be based upon these technologies, within an ubiquitous network population we can exchange information and communicate with other remote people and machines untroubled by and sometimes even unacquainted with the systems or devices allowing such communication. Castells theory of the network population is both engaging and progressive which is one of the reason why it's got a lot attention. In a time when our modern culture is certainly going through such intense and powerful transformations, probably moving beyond an commercial era altogether, it is crucial to really have the work of Castells who documents and analyses this important transition though such work as his theory of the network world. His observations on the public and economical dynamics of the information age not only help us better understand modern culture but will be looked to as a key reference source in the constantly changing years in advance.
