The Rise of The Network Society, Vol. I, 2nd ed.

The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture

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by Manuel Castells

Blackwell Publishers

Due/Published July 2000, 272 pages, paper

ISBN 0631221409

This new edition of The Rise of the Network Society has been substantially modified, revised throughout, and details the new social and economic developments brought by internet and the net-economy. This book, the first in Castells' trilogy, is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information. Based on research in US, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, it aims to formulate a systematic theory of the information society that takes account of the fundamental effects of information technology on the contemporary world.

Castells describes the accelerating pace of innovation and application. He examines the processes of globalization that have marginalized and threaten to make redundant whole countries and peoples excluded from informational networks. He investigates the culture, institutions and organizations of the network enterprise and the concomitant transformation of work and employment. He shows that in the advanced economies production is now concentrated on an educated section of the population aged between 25 and 40: many economies can do without a third or more of their people. He suggests that the effect of this accelerating trend may not be mass unemployment but the extreme flexibilization of work and individualization of labor, and, in consequence, a highly social structure.

>Prologue: The Net and The Self.
Technology, Society, and Historical Change.
Informationalism, Industrialism, Capitalism, Statism: Modes of Development and Modes of Production.
Informationalism and Capitalist Perestroyka.
The Self in The Informational Society.
A Word on Method.
1. The Information Technology Revolution.
Which Revolution?
Lessons From The Industrial Revolution.
The Historical Sequence of The Information Technology Revolution.
Micro-Engineering Macro Changes: Electronics and Information.
The 1970s Technological Divide.
Technologies of Life.
Social Context and The Dynamics of Technological Change.
Models, Actors, and Sites of The Information Technology Revolution.
The Information Technology Paradigm.
2. The Informational Economy and The Process of Globalization.
Introduction.
Productivity, Competitiveness, and The Informational Economy.
The Productivity Enigma.
Is Knowledge-Based Productivity Specific To The Informational Economy?
Informationalism and Capitalism, Productivity and Profitability.
The Repoliticization of Informational Capitalism.
The Historical Specificity of Informationalism.
The Global Economy: Genesis, Structure, and Dynamics.
The Limits To Globalization.
The Regional Differentiation of The Global Economy.
The Segmentation of The Global Economy.
The Sources of Competitiveness in The Global Economy.
The Newest International Division of Labor.
Changing Patterns of International Division of Labor in The Informational/Global Economy: Triad Power, The Rise of The Pacific, and The End of The Third World.
Sources of Growth and Stagnation in The Inter-National Division of Labor: The Changing Fortunes of Latin America.
The Dynamics of Exclusion From The New Global Economy: Africa's Fate?
The Last Frontier of The Global Economy: The Segmented Incorporation of Russia and The Ex-Soviet Republics.
The Architecture and Geometry of The Informational/Global Economy.
Appendix: Some Methodological Comments on Adjustment.
Policies in Africa and Their Evaluation.
3. The Network Enterprise: The Culture, Institutions, and Organizations of The Informational Economy.
Introduction.
Organizational Trajectories in The Restructuring of Capitalism and in The Transition From Industrialism to Informationalism.
From Mass Production to Flexible Production.
Small Business and The Crisis of The Large Corporation: Myth and Reality.
"Toyotism": Management-Worker Cooperation, Multifunctional Labor, Total Quality Control, and Reduction of Uncertainty.
Interfirm Networking.
Corporate Strategic Alliances.
The Horizontal Corporation and Global Business Networks.
The Crisis of The Vertical Corporation Model and The Rise of Business Networks.
Information Technology and The Network Enterprise.
Culture, Institutions, and Economic Organization: East Asian Business Networks.
A Typology of East Asian Business Networks.
Culture, Organizations and Institutions: Asian Business Networks and The Developmental State.
Multinational Enterprises, Transnational Corporations, and International Networks.
The Spirit of Informationalism.
4. The Transformation of Work and Employment: Networkers, Jobless, and Flextimers.
The Historical Evolution of Employment and Occupational Structure in Advanced Capitalist Countries: The G-7, 1920-2005.
Postindustrialism, The Service Economy, and The Informational Society.
The Transformation of Employment Structure, 1920-1970 and 1970-1990.
The New Occupational Structure.
The Maturing of The Informational Society: Employment Projections.
To The Twenty-First Century.
Summing Up: The Evolution of Employment Structure and Its Implications For A Comparative Analysis of The Informational Society.
Is There A Global Labor Force?
The Work Process in The Informational Paradigm.
The Effects of Information Technology On Employment: Toward A Jobless Society?
Work and The Informational Divide: Flextimers.
Information Technology and The Restructuring of Capital-Labor Relationships: Social Dualism Or Fragmented Societies?
Appendix A: Statistical Tables For Chapter 4.
Appendix B: Methodological Note and Statistical References.
5. The Culture of Real Virtuality: The Integration of Electronic Communication, The End of The Mass Audience, and The Rise of Interactive Networks.
Introduction.
From The Gutenberg Galaxy To The Mcluhan Galaxy: The Rise of Mass Media Culture.
The New Media and The Diversification of Mass Audience.
Computer-Mediated Communication, Institutional Control, Social Networks, and Virtual Communities.
The Minitel Story: L'Žtat Et L'amour.
The Internet Constellation.
The Interactive Society.
The Grand Fusion: Multimedia As Symbolic Environment.
The Culture of Real Virtuality.
6. The Space of Flows.
Introduction.
Advanced Services, Information Flows, and The Global City.
The New Industrial Space.
Everyday Life in The Electronic Cottage: The End of Cities?
The Transformation of Urban Form: The Informational City.
America's Last Suburban Frontier .
The Fading Charm of European Cities.
Third Millennium Urbanization: Megacities.
The Social Theory of Space and The Theory of The Space of Flows.
The Architecture of The End of History.
Space of Flows and Space of Places.
7. The Edge of Forever: Timeless Time.
Introduction.
Time, History, and Society.
Time As The Source of Value: The Global Casino.
Flextime and The Network Enterprise.
The Shrinking and Twisting of Life Working Time.
The Blurring of Lifecycle: Toward Social Arrhythmia?
Death Denied.
Instant Wars.
Virtual Time.
Time, Space, and Society: The Edge of Forever.
Conclusion: The Network Society.
Summary of Contents of Volumes Ii and Iii.
Bibliography.
Index.