Social networks and the network society (original) (raw)
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Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society1
The British Journal of Sociology, 2000
This article aims at proposing some elements for a grounded theor y of the network society. The network society is the social structure characteristic of the Information Age, as tentatively identi ed by empirical, cross-cultural investigation. It permeates most societies in the world, in various cultural and institutional manifestations, as the industrial society characterized the social structure of both capitalism and statism for most of the twentieth centur y. Social structures are organized around relationships of production/consumption, power, and experience, whose spatio-temporal con gurations constitute cultures. They are enacted, reproduced, and ultimately transformed by social actors, rooted in the social structure, yet freely engaging in con ictive social practices, with unpredictable outcomes. A fundamental feature of social structure in the Information Age is its reliance on networks as the key feature of social morphology. While networks are old forms of social organization, they are now empowered by new information/communication technologies, so that they become able to cope at the same time with exible decentralization, and with focused decision-making. The article examines the speci c interaction between network morphology and relationships of production/consumption, power, experience, and culture, in the historical making of the emerging social structure at the turn of the Millennium.
Book Review The Rise of the Network Society
Castell’s book is the first part of his milstone “The Information Age: Economy Society, and Culture” work. The author states that, the triology was prepared to be a single book, but then with the contributions of the editor, it was divided into three books by making each part of the study a separate book. In this particular book, Castells presents an easily understandable and comprehensive analysis by examining the economic, social, and cultural changes that caused by the Network Society. He does this by being as realistic as possible and reaching a clear conclusion by supporting all of his claims with various statistics and examples.
A rchitecture in Transition Era toward Network Society 1
2011
Technology affected human life in many ways in different eras of mankind history. Today, the information and telecommunication technology has revolutionized basic structures of human life. Changes are from the whole to the parts and vice versa, which include family and society too. Family lost its former structure in the information age and differentiated from patriarchy family. Societies have been formed based on logic of networking and new network societies are predominant form of our societies with their advantages and flaws comparing with the traditional societies. Basic concepts of the life i.e. space and time also have been transformed and living in space of flows and concurrency of functions require a special structure or body. Architecture constitutes the body of our societies which must meet physical and mental needs of humankind. In a transforming world, architecture is connecting ring between society and surrounding environment, previous traditions and future world, which...
European Journal of Social Theory, 2000
This essay advances two sets of critical observations about Manuel Castells's suggestion and detailed elaboration of the idea that modern society from the 1980s onwards constitutes a network society and that the unity in the diversity of global restructuring has to be seen in the massive deployment of information and communication technologies in all spheres of modern social life. The criticism attends to the possibility that the emphasis on the social role of information technologies in advanced society amounts to a modern version of 'technological determinism'. A discussion of the so-called productivity paradox shows that cultural and social processes rather than technological regimes continue to be more important for the evolution of society.
INFORMATIONALISM, NETWORKS, AND THE NETWORK SOCIETY: A THEORETICAL BLUEPRINT
A network society is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered by microelectronics-based information and communication technologies. By social structure I understand the organizational arrangements of humans in relationships of production, consumption, reproduction, experience, and power expressed in meaningful communication coded by culture. A network is a set of interconnected nodes. A node is the point where the curve intersects itself. A network has no center, just nodes. Nodes may be of varying relevance for the network. Nodes increase their importance for the network by absorbing more relevant information, and processing it more efficiently. The relative importance of a node does not stem from its specific features but from its ability to contribute to the network´s goals. However, all nodes of a network are necessary for the network´s performance. When nodes become redundant or useless, networks tend to reconfigurate themselves, deleting some nodes, and adding new ones. Nodes only exist and function as components of networks. The network is the unit, not the node. "Communication networks are the patterns of contact that are created by flows of messages among communicators through time and space" (Monge and Contractor, 2003: 39 ) So, networks process flows. Flows are streams of information between nodes circulating through the channels of connection between nodes. A network is defined by the program that assigns the network its goals and its rules of performance. This program is made of codes that include valuation of performance and criteria for success or failure. To alter the outcomes of the network a new program (a set of compatible codes) will have to be installed in the network -from outside the network. Networks cooperate or compete with each other. Cooperation is based on the ability to communicate between networks. This ability depends on the existence of codes of translation and inter-operability between the networks (protocols of communication), and on access to connection points (switches). Competition depends on the ability to outperform other networks by superior efficiency in performance or in cooperation capacity. Competition may also take a destructive form by disrupting the switchers of competing networks and/or interfering with their communication protocols. Networks work on a binary logic: inclusion/exclusion. Within the network, distance between nodes tends to zero, as networks follow the logic of small worlds´ properties: they are able to connect to the entire network and communicated networks from any node in the network, on the condition of sharing protocols of communication. Between nodes in the network and outside the network, distance is infinite, since there is no access unless the program of the network is changed. Thus, networks are self-reconfigurable, complex structures of communication that ensure at the same time the unity of the purpose and the flexibility of its execution, by the capacity to adapt to the operating environment. Networks, however, are not specific to 21 st century societies or, for that matter, to human organization. Networks constitute the fundamental pattern of life, of all kinds of life. As Fritjof Capra writes "the network is a pattern that is common to all life. Wherever we see life, we see networks" (2002: 9). In social life, social networks analysts have investigated, for a long time, the dynamic of social networks at the heart of social interaction and the production of meaning, leading to the formulation of a systematic theory of communication networks (Monge and Constructor, 2003). Furthermore, in terms of social structure, archeologists and historians of antiquity have forcefully reminded us that the historical record shows the pervasiveness and relevance of networks as the backbone of societies, thousands of years ago, in the most advanced ancient civilizations in several regions of the planet. Indeed, if we transfer the notion of globalization into the geography of the the ancient world, as determined by available transportation technologies, there was globalization of a sort in antiquity, as societies depended for their livelihood, resources, and power, on the connectivity of their main activities to networks transcending the limits of their locality (La Bianca, ed. 2004).
Internet; Changing the Social Dynamics
Internet is now part of our daily lives. Most of the people check their social media accounts, weather, their e-mails from Internet in the morning even before they get a cup of coffee. We have an intimate and direct relationship with Internet in every single second of our daily life. Sometimes it is not an option to use or neglect it. As Deborah Lupton says, we live in a digital society and this digital era have influenced our daily life, commerce, government, economy, social relations etc. . It was the late 90s when the human kind has met with the cell-phone. No exaggerating, this was a mile stone in the digital history after the invention of computer. But somehow the spread of cell-phone usage was faster than the computer’s. There is a long and toilsome history behind the keyboard under of our finger tips. What made Internet so widespread is open to discussion, yet we all agree that our hearts are beating with it. Our daily life is under the influence of Internet. In this literature I want to point out the effects of Social Media usage in Internet on our daily life, politics and collection of information somewhat like journalism. Public is kin to publicity and popularity, so it is best to start with the "Public".
The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Volume I. The Rise of the Network Society
The British Journal of Sociology, 1997
Volume I The Rise of the Network Society ''We live today in a period of intense and puzzling transformation, signalling perhaps a move beyond the industrial era altogether. Yet where are the great sociological works that chart this transition? Hence the importance of Manuel Castells' multivolume work, in which he seeks to chart the social and economic dynamics of the information age. .. [It] is bound to be a major reference source for years to come.'' (Anthony Giddens, The Times Higher Education Supplement) ''A brief review cannot do it justice. No other scholar has approached the subject of the information age in as engaging and innovative a way as this author. Strongly recommended for academic libraries.'' (Choice) A little over a decade since its first publication, the hypotheses set out in Manuel Castells' groundbreaking trilogy have largely been verified. In a substantial new preface to the first volume in the series, Castells demonstrates, in the light of major world trends, how the network society has now fully risen on a global scale. The book discusses how the global economy is now characterized by the almost instantaneous flow and exchange of information, capital, and cultural communication. These flows order and condition both consumption and production. The networks themselves reflect and create distinctive cultures. Both they and the traffic they carry are largely outside national regulation. Our dependence on the new modes of informational flow gives to those in a position to control them enormous power to control us. The main political arena is now the media, and the media are not politically answerable. Based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, Castells formulates a systematic theory of the information society and details the new social and economic developments brought by the Internet and the ''new economy.''