Commetary on Castells, M. Excerpts from “Informationalism, Networks and the Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint” From the Network Society:A Cross-cultural Perspective. Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elager, pgs. 3-7 & 36-45
Calling today’s age an “information age” or “knowledge age” is somewhat of a fallacy, as this is not the only age in which there has been transfer of information. From homing pigeons to books and the tombs of the rich, there has always been a transfer of information from one person to another. Knowledge and information is power and productivity. To emphasise the knowledge we now posses as somehow being better or more complete than the knowledge we possessed in earlier ages would be arrogant and so Castells attempts to relabel this era as a network society, with the following criteria: Network societies are primarily characterised by their scalability, flexibility and survivability. As an example, the Internet. From its very beginnings to where it is now spanning the world, connecting every place in some way instantaneously,it fulfils each of these criteria. It can change as needs, can be as large or small as necessary and the Internet as a virtual structure will not fail if one node does. The Internets only vulnerability is in the mechanism by which it is connected, rather than the network itself.
This network society has created great change in the practices and concepts that were used to govern life during the industrial age, for example. The concept of “clock time” and the functioning of a highly routinised and structured life became commonplace at the beginning of the industrial age.The network society has altered the relationship between time and space, so that time becomes less important as a consideration in life. There then becomes two spaces, coexisting intertwined: the space of places and the space of flows. These can blur together at times, leading to a “doubling of place” where consciousness can exist in both the place and flow of a space. The space of flows is accessed through technology, and while communities and people can value the space of places, emphasising locality and experience over the spatial form of the network, whose logic can be transitory.
Castell’s hypothesis is that: “the culture of thew network society is a culture of protocols of communication between all cultures of the world, developed on the basis of common belief in the power of networking and … giving to others and receiving from others.” He supports this with the example of hackers and their ethical code, which consists of two components: a want to innovate for purposes other than for capital gain and with this, a want to share this instant gratification. Instead of “trade secrets”, in the network society knowledge is pooled, allowing further innovation and as innovation is the source of power and wealth, this then becomes the culture of the society, with an acceptance of the knowledge others have, and a grater appreciation of diversity.
