Information
and communications technologies.' As Castells shows in
his book, historically, there have always been social networks: the key factor
that distinguishes the network society is that the use of ICTs helps to create
and sustain far-flung networks in which new kinds of social relationships are
created.
According
to Castells, three processes led to the emergence of this new social structure
in the late 20th century:
- the restructuring of industrial economies to accommodate an open market approach
- the freedom-oriented cultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the civil rights movement, the feminist movement and the environmental movement
- the revolution in information and communication technologies
Castells'
analysis of the significance of these three processes (which can be followed in
detail in the Key Reading by Castells for this section) provides a broad
historical context for the development paradigms we will discuss in the next
section. The significance of economic restructuring is that it created the
conditions for the emergence of the open market development paradigm, weakening
the nation state and deepening processes of social inclusion and exclusion
between and within countries. The cultural movements were significant because
they created the conditions for emergence of an opposing 'human-capabilities
centred' development paradigm that focuses on human rights. The values of
individual autonomy and freedom espoused by this cultural change shaped the
open network structure for communication
Inclusion and exclusion in the network society
A
key aspect of the network society concept is that specific societies (whether
nation states or local communities) are deeply affected by inclusion in and
exclusion from the global networks that structure production, consumption,
communication and power. Castells' hypothesis is that exclusion is not just a
phenomenon that will be gradually wiped out as technological change embraces
everyone on the planet, as in the case that everyone has a mobile phone, for
example. He argues that exclusion is a built-in, structural feature of the
network society.
In
part this is because networks are based on inclusion and exclusion. Networks
function on the basis of incorporating people and resources that are valuable
to their task and excluding other people, territories and activities that have
little or no value for the performance of those tasks (Castells 2004 p. 23).
Different networks have different rationales and geographies of exclusion and
exclusion - for example, Silicon Valley engineers occupy very different social
and territorial spaces from criminal networks.
Power and empowerment in the network society
In
a social structure characterized by exclusion from and inclusion in different
kinds of social and communication networks, power is a crucial determinant of
social change. Power can be defined as the capacity to impose one's will over
another's will. In the concept of the network society, the chief form of
power is control or influence over communication.
This
is because connectivity and access to networks are essential to the power of
some social groups to impose their values and goals on society-at-large and of
others to resist their domination.
In
the network society, one of the most important impacts of globalization is the
way it enables us to create economic, social and political relationships that
are less and less bounded by where we are located at any given time - or in
other words, by our spatial location.
By Mbogo Tausi
BAPRM 42663
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