Manuel Castells highly-acclaimed trilogy, The Information Age, represents the most comprehensive attempt to develop a coherent social theory of the present day. From his early, groundbreaking work on urban change and social movements, to his current work on the social transformations in a globalized
world based on the use of new communication technologies, Castells has been at the forefront of contemporary debates for over three decades. At the heart of his theory lies the claim that we are witnessing a shift from vertically-integrated hierarchies to flexible, distributed networks which structure dominant social processes as well as the main challenges launched
against them. His scope, rigor and style have earned him favorable comparison with the great classics of sociology, particularly Max Weber. This book provides the first complete study of Castells theory of the network society. It is a critical examination of his analysis of informational
capitalism', of global social movements as the source of new values, and of networked governance. Felix Stalder also provides an original and in-depth
account of the theory of the space of flows and of Castells particular notion of the character of informational networks. The book serves as both an
excellent introduction to Castells wide-ranging theories and an innovative critique which contributes to ongoing debates in the field.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1
1: Transformation of Baseline 1
Neo-Marxism and the Renewal of Urban Sociology 13
Technology and Social Change 20
Informationalism 28
Epistemology 33
The Politics of Research 38
2: Production 42
Postindustrialism 43
The Economic Crisis of the 1970s 46
Internationalization of the Economy 48
Global Financial Markets 50
The Network Enterprise 55
Individualization of Labor 61
Informational Capitalism: Critical Issues 65
3: Experience 75
Social movements as subjects of history 76
Social movements beyond the local 81
Social movements and the creation of identity 83
Two case studies 87
Social movements and the culture of real virtuality 99
4: The network state and informational politics 104
The theory of the state 106
The crisis of the nation-state 109
Informational politics 115
The reaffirmation of the state 118
The rise of the network state? 122
Power and networks 128
5: Flows and places 141
Castells's theory of space 142
The space of flows 145
The time of flows 155
Cities in the space of flows 162
6: The logic of networks 167
What is a network? 169
Informational networks 181
The network logic 185
Preeminence of morphology over action 196
Conclusion 199
Notes 207
Bibliography of Manuel Castells 224
Other References 241
Index 252
