The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Societies in Transition to the Network Society 65
Only thus can one explain, for Portugal for example, that amongst
those who were born before 1967 we find a section of social agents
that are similar, in certain practice dimensions and, at times, representations,
of the younger Portuguese citizens. This similarity is visible in
the fact that they have educational competences that are close to one
another, for example in the use of the Internet or in their approach to
professional improvement.
The society we live in is not a society in social division. It is a society
based on an informational development model, in which some
cognitive skills are more valued than others, namely: the highest education
level, formal literacy and technological literacies. All these are
acquired and not innate skills. As such, social division is not inevitable;
there is, rather, a process of transition in which the protagonists are
those who most easily master these skills.
At the same time as experiencing multiple transition processes,
societies such as the Portuguese and Catalan societies preserve strong
social cohesion via a dense network of social and territorial relations.
They are societies that change and maintain their cohesion at the
same time. They evolve at the global level, while maintaining local
and personal control over that which gives meaning to life (Castells
2004c). In the societies in transition that balance between change and
social cohesion could be one more common trait.
However, although they share global networks, each societal reality
is unique and only a more in-depth analysis of each nation would
show us the signs of future evolution in each of our societies. That is
the challenge in understanding the transitions in progress in our societies
as they become network societies.