Castells Case

We live in a new world, with new information and communication technologies that are the essence of new organizational forms and new productivity sources. In his article Castells analyzes technological innovation, organizational change and globalization, and questions the different dimensions of inequality and social exclusion showing how serious the crisis actually is. Castells provides hypothesis on the reasons for it.

The power of information is something that human activity depends on. It is giving us an opportunity to manipulate life with remarkable potential consequences. Internet is a channel of worldwide communication that is used by millions of people. While in some parts of the world technology is moving faster, other parts are being left in a technological apartheid. One third of the world's population has to survive on one dollar per day. Technology is not a solution to social problems but the use of it is essential for both economic and social development. The role of information and communication technologies in motivating development is a tough work. It allows some economies to be even stronger while other economies are unable to adapt to the new technological system. The ability to move into the Information Age depends on the ability of the entire society to be educated and to adapt and process complex information. And to grow in the new economy without its integration into the technological system of the information age is very hard for a country.

Globalization is normally used to describing the spread and connectedness of production, communication and technologies all over the world. Globalization in the sense of connectivity in economic and cultural life has been emerging for some time now. But the present situation is of a different order then before. Castells argues convincingly that new economies emerges around the world and describes it as a new brand of capitalism that has three features: "productivity and competitiveness are, by and large, a function of knowledge generation and information processing; firms and territories are organized in networks of production, management and distribution; the core economic activities are global - that is, they have the capacity to work as a unit in real time, or chosen time, on a planetary scale". Not everything is global. A lot of employment is local or regional, but strategically important actions and economic features are networked around a globalized system of inputs and outputs.

In the Information Age, the critical organizational form is networking. A network is a series of points or nodes interconnected by communication paths and the relationship between nodes are asymmetrical but essential for the network to function, money, people, information, technology through the network. If you are in then your opportunities increases, otherwise your chances vanish. Networks have always existed in human society. However, they have become the most influential