Notes on ‘The Rise of the Network Society’ by Manuel Castells
1996: Cambridge, Blackwells

Introduction

“Economies throughout the world have become globally interdependent, introducing a new form of relationship between economy, state and society, in a system of variable geometry” (p.1)

-	the decline of the USSR marked the end of a serious challenge to capitalism
but:
Capitalism itself has been dramatically restructured:
-	greater management flexibility
-	decentralization and networking both within and between firms
-	capital more valuable compared to labour
-	individualization, diversification of work relations
-	much greater (if unequal) incorporation of women into paid labour
-	selective deregulation of markets
-	decline of the welfare state (at varying rates)
-	more global competition

Global integration of financial markets means important segments/territories develop rapidly, yet others become irrelevant, from the perspective of the system’s logic (adapted from p.2)

“Gender relationships have become, in much of the world, a contested domain, rather than a sphere of cultural reproduction” (p.2)

“Political systems are engulfed in a structural crisis of legitimacy…essentially dependent on media coverage and personalized leadership” (p.2)

“social movements tend to be fragmented, localised, single issue orientated” (p.2)

------------------------------------What is the response to this new era?--------------------------------

“in a world of uncontrolled, confusing change, people tend to regroup around primary identities: religious, ethnic, territorial, national” (p.3)

↓ these become the only source of meaning

because society is so fragmented, the question of who are we (or, who we think we are) becomes more important that what we do

Castells rejects post-modernism, he instead believes in rationality, 
-	society can be improved through meaningful social action

Conclusion

“dominant functions and processes in the information age are increasingly organised around networks. Networks constitute the new social morphology” (p.469)

this social morphology is more important the conventional social action; participation in the network is essential for power

“networks are open structures, able to expand without limits…susceptible to innovation without threatening its balance” (p.470)

There are multiple networks, each communicating in different ‘languages’, that is shared values. It is the switchers, those who have the ability/position to translate between two or more networks that hold the power in this model of society

Space and time are less important the participation (or non-participation) in the network

For now, the network society remains a capitalist one; yet capital and labour have become less related:
- “they live by each other, but do not relate to each other, as the life of the global capital depends less and less of specific labour and more and more on accumulated generic labour” (p.473)