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Anti-capitalist organizations, such
as the Anticapitalist Initiative
(which expressly refers to itself
as a network on its website), have
made use of the Internet in creative
ways to connect people through a
burgeoning network that occupies
the space of flows. Castells uses
the example of the Zapatistas in
Mexico to acknowledge that social
power can be accrued through the
space of flows by marginalized
groups in order to challenge the
state and elite institutions. The
Zapatistas have been successful
in attracting media attention in
cyberspace and have used the
Internet to perform virtual sit-ins,
with software clogging government
servers and websites, as well as to
plan and coordinate offline events.
Dystopia or utopia?
Castells’ twin concepts of
Information Age and network
society provide a powerful set
of analytical tools for understanding
the transformative effects that
information technology and
globalization are having on human
life and social relations.
Marx’s concept of alienation
resonates throughout Castells’
work, which represents an attempt
to make sense of the furiously
paced changes and processes
unfolding in the world around us
with a view to reclaiming control
over them. However, the idea that
humans have created a global
society they have lost control of and
are alienated by is in part indebted
to other theorists of globalization
such as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich
Beck, and Zygmunt Bauman.
Castells’ work has many critics.
Sociologists such as Bauman
say it is utopian considering the
“reality” of the social, economic,
political, and environmental
problems confronting humanity
today. Others deny that the present
social and economic order is
historically unprecedented; British
sociologist Nicholas Garnham
argues that the network society is
more accurately a development of
industrialism than a novel stage in
human society. British sociologist
Frank Webster charges Castells
with technological determinism—
the view that social relations are
intimately shaped by technological
developments but are not
determined by them; rather,
the two influence one another.
Whether or not the network
society is novel or beneficial,
there is no doubt that the world is
increasingly interconnected and
reliant on digital technologies,
which are reshaping social
relations. For Castells, the rise of
a global society bound by myriad
networks is, ultimately, a positive
thing. Enabling people from far-
flung places to interact offers the
potential for humanity to draw
upon its collective productive
resources to create a new and
enlightened world order. He argues
that if we “are informed, active,
and communicate throughout the
world” then we “can depart for
exploration of the inner self, having
made peace among ourselves.” ■LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD
While organizations are
located in places... the
organizational logic
is placeless.
Manuel CastellsManuel Castells
Manuel Castells Oliván was
born in 1942 in Spain. After
being active in the student
anti-Franco movement, he
left Spain for France to study
for a PhD in sociology at the
University of Paris during the
politically turbulent late 1960s.
In the 1980s Castells
moved to California—the
home of Silicon Valley. A
decade or so later he wrote an
influential three-volume study
about the network society
entitled The Information Age:
Economy, S oc iety, a nd Culture.
Castells is an influential
social scientific thinker. He is
a sociologist at the University
of Southern California (USC),
Los Angeles, contributed to
the establishment of the USC
Center on Public Diplomacy,
and is also a member of
the Annenberg Research
Network on International
Communication (ARNIC).Key works1996 The Information Age:
Volume I: The Rise of the
Network Society
1997 The Information Age:
Volume II: The Power of
Identity
1998 The Information Age:
Volume III: End of Millennium