The Power of Identity, 2nd ed.

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by Manuel Castells

Blackwell Publishers

Due/Published March 2004, 537 pages, paper

ISBN 1405107138

"The Power of Identity is the second volume of Manuel Castells' bestselling trilogy "The Information Age. This visionary study outlines the social, political, and cultural dynamics associated with the technological transformation of our societies and the globalization of the economy. It analyzes the importance of cultural, religious, and national identity as sources of meaning for people, and the implications of these identities for social movements. "The Power of Identity examines grassroots mobilizations against unfettered globalization of wealth and power; it researches the formation of alternative projects of social organization, as represented by the environmental and women's moments. It also analyzes the crisis of the nation-state and its transformation into a network state, and studies the crisis of political democracy resulting from the difficulties of international governance and the submission of political representation to the dictates of media politics and the politics of scandal. This substantially expanded second edition updates and elaborates the analysis of these themes, adding new sections on Al Qaeda and global terrorist networks, the anti-globalization movement, American unilateralism and the conflicts of global governance, the crisis of political legitimacy throughout the world, and the theory of the network state.