Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

NETWORK SOCIETY
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than the powers in the network’ (Castells, 1996, p. 193), a gnomic phrase that
translates into saying that ICTs have reduced the effectiveness of global corporations
and dramatically empowered those people and organisations who are
entrepreneurial and effective in terms of networking. These people may actually
be employed inside corporations, yet the new technologies have brought about
the devolution of power from their employers to the network players.
Castells (1996) goes on to extol what he calls the ‘spirit of informationalism’
(p. 195). Here he borrows from Max Weber’s famous argument that there was in
Calvinist theology an ‘elective affinity’ with the development of capitalism – the
‘Protestant ethic’ gelled with the ‘spirit of capitalism’ – to suggest a comparable
element in operation today. Capitalism is still around, but ‘in new, profoundly
modified forms’ (p. 198), at the core of which is this ‘spirit of informationalism’.
Castells’s depiction of this ‘spirit of informationalism’ evokes an image of those
participants in ‘cyberspace’ who are at ease with information exchanges, are
well connected, and are so effectively networked that they may seize the day.
He appears awed by the capacity of network decisions to radically transform
lives and events across the world in waves of ‘creative destruction’ (to use
Schumpeter’s terms). It must follow, he asserts, that those who make such decisions
are a new type of person, answerable not even to their employers, and
always open to those with the talent to network. It is not surprising, then, that
Castells ends in describing this new state of affairs as being where ‘Schumpeter
meets Weber in the cyberspace of the network enterprise’ (p. 199), names which
conjure a heady mix of tumultuous change, creativity and personal drive.
Castells’s co-author, Pekka Himanen (2001), has extended this thesis to suggest
that a ‘hacker ethic’ is evident today, being a combination of adventure and
lawlessness in which the motivated work for the hell of it.
Castells also pays considerable attention to changes in work practices and
employment patterns. The conclusion of a lengthy definitional and statistical tour
is that, in the view of Castells, information work has massively increased
throughout society, that in the round it is more satisfying than the labour that
was available in the past, that it is much more individuated than previously, and
that the changed circumstances of the ‘network society’ mean that people must
get used to being ‘flexible’ in what they do and in what they expect to be doing
in the future if they are to survive amid the ‘systemic volatility’ of informational
capitalism.
Cultural consequences of informational capitalism
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Midway through, The Rise of the Network Society shifts gear to reflect on the
cultural consequences of technological change. Castells has little truck with
worries about the content of the network, and fears about things such as computer
pornography and bulletin boards for neo-fascists do not detain him. Castells
detects a deeper consequence of ICTs, in a way that revives the legacy of
Marshall McLuhan, to whom Castells (1996) pays ‘homage’ (p. 329) for his insight
that television announced the end of print (The Gutenberg Galaxy, 1962) and its
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