THE NETWORK SOCIETY

Castells claims that we are passing from the industrial age into the information age. This historical change is brought about by the advent of new information technologies – particularly those for communication and biological technologies. Society remains capitalist, but basis of the technological means by which it acts has changed from energy to information. This information is of central importance in determining economic productivity. Communications technologies allow for the annihilation of space and for globalization; the potential for rapid and asynchronous communication also changes the relationship to time.

According to Castells, power now rests in networks the logic of the network is more powerful than the powers of the network. Some networks, such as that of financial capital, are global in scale. The ability of an actor in the network – be it a company, individual, government, or other organization – to participate in the network is determined by the degree to which the node can contribute to the goals of the network. This new environment requires skilled flexible workers: the organization man gives way to the flexible woman. This leads to a binary process of inclusion and exclusion from the network. The people at the bottom are those who, with nothing to offer the network, are excluded.

Capital and Labor

Castells distinguishes the terms information and informational. He says that information has been an essential component of all societies, whether capitalist or not. In the new network economy, information becomes a key factor in economic productivity. Today, for example, for example, the flow of capital into currencies, commodities, and stocks is based upon access to information about relevant topics, from international politics to climate change, weather predictions, and social trends. In that sense, the importance of information in contemporary society is not new. What is new, he claims, is the informational shift to the manipulation of information itself: the action of knowledge upon knowledge itself, is now the basis to increased productivity.

Flows vs. Places and the Role of the Nation State

Castells is an urban geographer, so his examination of space is central to his work. One of his key spacial characterizations of the information age is the space of flows. This is the domain of networks of capital, of information, of business alliances, etc. 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 networks. This space of flows challenges what Castells calls the space of places, including regional communities and nation states.

The inclusion and exclusion

The inclusion and exclusion logic of the network “switches off . . . people and territories dubbed as irrelevant from the perspective of dominant interests. This enforces domination domination depends on the simultaneous capacity of elites to articulate themselves and disarticulate the masses. Groups may choose to develop their own networks with their own goals, but if they wish to interact with the dominant networks in society they must adapt to the goals of those networks.

    By James Catherine