"NETWORKED SOCIETY"

"Networked Society"

"Networked Society"

The network society is the social structure that seems to characterize the Information Age, albeit through a wide range of manifestations, according to cultural and institutional specificity. The model represents the synthesis of observation and analysis Manuel Castells carried out in three continents, and a variety of countries, including Russia, for about 14 years, and presented in a trilogy titled “The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture”, published in 1996-98. The network society is characterized by a simultaneous transformation to the economy, of work and employment, of culture, of politics, of state institutions, and, ultimately, of space, and time. New information and communication technologies are the indispensable tool of this multidimensional transformation, but not its cause.

The genesis of the network society is largely related to a historical accident: the coincidence, around the 1970s, of three major independent processes that took place around the world: the information technology revolution; the cultural social movements of the 1960s/70s; and the crisis, and subsequent restructuring (or perestroika) of the two socio-economic systems existing at the time, capitalism, and statism. Statism failed to adapt to the Information Age, and in its desperate attempt to overcome its contradictions, spiraled politically out of control, and collapsed. Capitalism emerged triumphant from its self-transformation, in a new, leaner, and meaner incarnation. Only to have to confront the new dramas, crises, and conflicts, engendered by its contradictory nature. The new social structure that characterizes most of the planet today, the network society, is related to a new economy. This economy is capitalist, but from a new brand of capitalism. It is informational and global. That is, knowledge and information are the key sources of productivity, and of competitiveness, the two crucial processes in any economy. Knowledge generation, and information processing, depend upon access to an appropriate technological infrastructure, as well as on the quality of human resources able to operate advanced information systems. Globalization has linked up all core economic activities in all countries, even if most activities, jobs, and people are still national and local. Economies of all countries depend on global financial markets, and of world linkages in trade, production, management and distribution of commodities, goods, and services. Foreign investment, either direct or in stocks, shapes/conditions economies of most countries in the planet. The new economy is organized around networks of information, without a center, in constant interaction between the nodes of these networks, either locally or globally.

Furthermore, globalization is not limited to the economy. Media networks are connected in business transactions, as well as in the global exchange of information, sounds, and images. Internet has become the horizontal medium of communication worldwide, currently with about 130 million users, heading towards 500 million in the early 21st century. The networking form of organization provides essential flexibility for firms, individuals, and countries. Constant adaptation to the whirlwind of capital, demand, and technology is the name of the game. The only rule is that there are no rules. When they still exist, they are bypassed by ...