THE CONCEPT OF NETWORK SOCIETY BY MANUEL CASTELLS

The concept of the network society is closely associated with interpretation of the social implications of globalization and the role of electronic communications technologies in society. The definition of a network society given by the foremost theorist of the concept, Manuel Castells. Is that it is 'a society whose social structure is made up of networks powered by micro-electronics-based 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 Information and Communication Technologies 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. 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 centered' 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 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 by Castells. 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.

The most fundamental divides in the network society according to Castells are the division of labor and the poverty trap that we discussed earlier in the context of globalization. He characterizes these as the divide between 'those who are the source of innovation and value to the network society, those who merely carry out instructions, and those who are irrelevant whether as workers (not enough education, living in marginal areas with inadequate infrastructure for participation in global production) or as consumers (too poor to be part of the global market

 by FOYA JOHN H.

      BAPRM 42553