Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

NETWORK SOCIETY
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hand, the adjective allows him to draw attention to developments of such import
that they mark the arrival of entirely new relationships. Informationalism, a key
term to Castells, identifies ‘the action of knowledge upon knowledge itself as
the main source of productivity’ (Castells, 1996, p. 17), and it heralds a ‘new
economy’ as well as a ‘new society’. On the other hand, his retention of the noun
‘capitalism’ lets Castells observe that familiar forms of economic relationships
(profit-seeking, private ownership, market principles and the rest) prevail. Indeed,
he goes further to observe that ‘informational capitalism’ is an especially unforgiving,
even rapacious, form of capitalism because it combines enormous
flexibility with global reach (both of which were absent in previous capitalist eras)
thanks to network arrangements (Castells, 1998, p. 338).
Theories of the Information Society has distinguished thinkers who emphasise
systemic change by evoking the concept of an ‘information society’ and those
who contend that continuities from the past are the most telling feature of the
present. So where, one might ask, does Castells fit into this schema? He appears
to stress the profundity of change and simultaneously to emphasise that
capitalism persists and that it is even more audacious and entrenched than hitherto.
At once Castells is recognising that capitalism plays a lead role in the present
period (and this necessarily means that former relationships are perpetuated and
even extended), and at the same time he is forwarding the view that fundamental
changes have come about because of the establishment of a ‘network society’
and that these networks are requisites of any future social organisation. A tension
here between the view that capitalism is the most salient feature of the world
today (continuity) and that it is informationalism which is of primary importance
(change) runs through the oeuvre of Manuel Castells, and this is something to
which I must return later in this chapter.
However, it is worth noting that Manuel Castells (2004a) is conscious of this
issue. Thus he rejects as ‘a bit pretentious’ those who ‘label our society an information
or knowledge society’ because ‘I know no society in which information
and knowledge have not been absolutely decisive in every aspect of society’. In
such a way he unhesitatingly jettisons ‘information society’ concepts. He has distanced
himself from the prioritisation of information, so even the term ‘informational
capitalism’ has become less prominent in his writing. Nonetheless, Castells
refuses to dither on the core issue, plainly stating in more recent work that it is
the emergence of a ‘network society’ that does truly mark a novel society. Thus
‘while we are not in an information society . . . we are in a networked society’ and
this is a ‘fundamental, morphological transformation of society’ (ibid.).
The network society
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Castells argues that we are undergoing a transformation towards an ‘information
age’, the chief characteristic of which is the spread of networks linking people,
institutions and countries. There are many consequences of this, but the most
telling is that the network society simultaneously heightens divisions while
increasing integration of global affairs. Castells’s concern is to examine ways in
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