Manuel Castells, Catalan sociologist, famous for the network society theory is considered as one of the most important expert on the problems of the contemporary information society. He’s focused on the idea that contemporary social processes are determined by the infrastructure of the net. In this way Castells creates a new sociological paradigm, founded on the primacy of the reticular structure of the interaction (instead of the content) in the communication between social actors.
We could say that Castells translates the teachings of McLuhan in terms of a reformulation of the concepts of general sociology. McLuhan in fact defend principle that "the medium is the message", it means that analyzing the content (informations or meanings) passed by medium, it cannot be isolated from the medium that conveys it.
In the social field we can notice a similar situation: the content of the interaction is dependent on the technological infrastructure (which in our globalized society is precisely the “Network”) that transmits it. From this view, Castells outlines, especially in his monumental text “The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance", a wide range of scenarios, problems, analysis of trends.
I really appreciated the way how Castells analyze our society, he always try to connect people’s behavior with the theories that is supporting, never forgetting that this “Network society” is composed by human beings. For example he never said that information technologies were the responsible of social changes, he correctly supposed that these change processes couldn’t be realized without technologies. I totally agree with this point of view, people make changes, technologies just support the process.
Communication and information have always been key sources of power, domination, and
social change. This is due to the fact that the main battle that plays in society is for the minds
of people. The way of thinking of mass society determines the laws and values on which societies are based. Is the Communication (socialized communication, the one that invests
in public sphere) the base of social production of meaning; conquering the minds of each person
is conducted especially in communication processes. This is even more true in the case of the network society, which is characterized by the spread of communication networks. The continuous
transformation of communication technology in the digital age extends the influence of the media at all the spheres of social life, in a network that is both global and local, generical and customized, according to all the evolving models. Consequently, power relations (relations that represent the foundation for the society) and processes that challenge the institution’s power are increasingly determined from the sphere of communication. In this Social network society, the power that every single person got is a big benefit that we should consider; let’s just think about internet and the possibility of sharing our feelings and thoughts with other people and especially the possibility of learning something from other users is something that in this age sounds normal and obvious but if we compare with the past is an important step for the development of our society. I think that Castells gives us the right tools and the perfect cultural and political scenes to focus on this topic; uploading on my blog this comment, naturally come in my mind the fascinating and functional way of spreading my thoughts in this form; completely different than a recent past when the society could learn just from institutions, following a kind of controlled development.
social change. This is due to the fact that the main battle that plays in society is for the minds
of people. The way of thinking of mass society determines the laws and values on which societies are based. Is the Communication (socialized communication, the one that invests
in public sphere) the base of social production of meaning; conquering the minds of each person
is conducted especially in communication processes. This is even more true in the case of the network society, which is characterized by the spread of communication networks. The continuous
transformation of communication technology in the digital age extends the influence of the media at all the spheres of social life, in a network that is both global and local, generical and customized, according to all the evolving models. Consequently, power relations (relations that represent the foundation for the society) and processes that challenge the institution’s power are increasingly determined from the sphere of communication. In this Social network society, the power that every single person got is a big benefit that we should consider; let’s just think about internet and the possibility of sharing our feelings and thoughts with other people and especially the possibility of learning something from other users is something that in this age sounds normal and obvious but if we compare with the past is an important step for the development of our society. I think that Castells gives us the right tools and the perfect cultural and political scenes to focus on this topic; uploading on my blog this comment, naturally come in my mind the fascinating and functional way of spreading my thoughts in this form; completely different than a recent past when the society could learn just from institutions, following a kind of controlled development.
After reading Castells articles, surely interesting but misunderstandable in some aspect with a not really clear vocabulary, I could clarify my ideas reading Kaja Tampere’s article, and at the same time find again the self-esteem in my English language skills!
I think it’s really important how she defines the utility of a good company’s communication in our controversial society, where of course technologies are helping the daily life to don’t lose time or to be much more accurate and clear but creating a bigger scenery of users, customers, institutions etc… from her examples comes up that words as “trustworthiness” and “credibility” should be transmitted on the minds of the customers to get good results in this Network Society really complicated.
At the end I really suggest to the future students to read first the article of Kaja Tampere, then Castells, it could be much more easy to get all the points of both authors.
Castells, M. (2008) The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2008 616. pp. 78-93.
Castells, M. (2007) Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society. International Journal of Communication 1 (2007), pp. 238-266.
Castells, M. (2000) The Contours of the Network Society. The Journal of Futures Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 02 (02), pp. 151-157. Camford Publishing Ltd
Tampere, K. (2011) A walk in the public relations field: Theoretical discussions from a social media and network society perspective. Central European Journal of Communication 1 (2011), pp. 49-61.
I just wanted to say that your idea how to get rid of 450 person was ingenius !! Thank you for making me laugh :)
RispondiEliminamaybe it was expressed in a funny way :) But I tried to imagine a possible situation in dismissing workers, and I really believe in what I said...maybe I should work on the form and the way how to explain my ideas, otherwise people don't get me serious..but in the same time I think that sense of humour is a good advantage in communications :)
RispondiEliminathanks for commenting!