Born February 9, 1942 Manuel Castells grew up in fascist Spain. Speaking of his upbringing he had this to say: “It's difficult for people of the younger generation to realize what that means, even for the Spanish younger generation. You had actually to resist the whole environment, and to be yourself, you had to fight and to politicize yourself from the age of fifteen or sixteen.”
This politically volatile environment played a monumental role in the way in which Castells would engage himself. Castells was politically active in the student anti-Franco movement, an adolescent political activism that forced him to flee Spain for France. It was there in Paris, at the age of 20, that he completed his degree studies, then progressed to the University of Paris, where he earned a doctorate in sociology.
Manuel Castells work in sociology synthesizes empirical research literature with combinations of urban sociology, organization studies, internet studies, social movements, sociology of culture, and political economy. About the origins of the network society, he posits that changes to the network form of enterprise predate the electronic internet technologies usually associated with network organization forms (cf. Organization theory (Castells)). From this research Castells coined the academic term “The Fourth World”, denoting the sub-population(s) socially excluded from the global society; usual usage denotes the nomadic, pastoral, and hunter-gatherer ways of life beyond the contemporary industrial society norm.
Castells and the Age of Information
Castells maintains that the Information Age can "unleash the power of the mind,"[5] which would dramatically increase the productivity of individuals and lead to greater leisure, allowing individuals to achieve "greater spiritual depth and more environmental consciousness." Such change would be positive, he argues, in that it would cause resource consumption to decrease. The Information Age, The Age of Consumption, and The Network Society are all perspectives attempting to describing modern life as known in the present and to depict the future of society. As Castells suggests, contemporary society may be described as “replacing the antiquated metaphor of the machine with that of the network.
Within the Information Age Economy, Society and Culture act as the three sociological dimensions — production, power, and experience — this stresses that the organization of the economy, of the state and its institutions, and the ways that people create meaning in their lives through collective action, are incredible sources of social dynamics — that must be understood as both discrete and inter-related entities. Additionally, he became an established cybernetic culture theoretician with his Internet development analysis stressing the roles of the state (military and academic), social movements (computer hackers and social activists), and business, in shaping the economic infrastructure according to their (conflicting) interests. The Information Age trilogy is his précis: "Our societies are increasingly structured around the bipolar opposition of the Net and the Self"; the “Net” denotes the network organizations replacing vertically integrated hierarchies as the dominant form of social organization, the Self denotes the practices a person uses in reaffirming social identity and meaning in a continually changing cultural landscape.
Contributions and awards:
Castells was a key developer of the variety of Marxist urban sociology that emphasizes the role of social movements in the conflictive transformation of the city. He introduced the concept of "collective consumption" (public transport, public housing, etc.) comprehending a wide range of social struggles — displaced from the economic stratum to the political stratum via state intervention.
Manuel Castells received the 2012 Holberg International Memorial Prize, considered to be the Nobel Prize in Sociology. The international jury recognized Castells as the world’s “leading sociologist of the city and new information and media technologies”, adding that “his ideas and writings have shaped our understanding of the political dynamics of urban and global economies in the network society”. The jury considers his book from 2009 ‘Communication Power’ to be “essential for a new understanding of politics”.
Castells has published 20 books, and over 100 articles in academic journals, as well as co-authored or edited 15 additional books. Among his various distinctions and awards, he was appointed to the European Academy in 1994; and was a member of the European Commission's High Level Expert Group on the Information Society in 1995-97.In 1999-2000 he received the May 1st Award for Social Thought from the Catalan Workers General Union's Foundation, and the Cambrescat Award for Internet Studies from the Catalan Association of Chambers of Commerce.
He has been an adviser to Unesco, International Labour Office, United Nations Development Program, US Agency for International Development, European Commission, Government of Chile (Allende administration), Government of Mexico, Government of France, Government of Ecuador, State Council of the People's Republic of China, Government of the Russian Federation, Government of Brazil, Government of Portugal, and Government of Spain
Manuel Castells Tumblr posts: https://www.tumblr.com/search/manuel+castells
