Theory of Network society:
The definition Network Society, in concrete terms of a network society is a society where the key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed information networks. So it’s not just about networks or social networks, because social networks have been very old forms of social organization. It’s about social networks which process and manage information and are using micro-electronic based technologies
Summary:
- Network society is used by Manuel Castells to refer to the social structures of the information age, which is dominated by decentralized networks rather than bureaucratic and hierarchical institutions.
- Castells acknowledges that while social networks themselves are not new, the difference in a network society is that social networks are driven by micro-electronic communications technologies, such as the internet or mobile telephones.
- Network society is organized around new forms of time and space that are not geographically bounded: he called it timeless time and the space of flows.
- Castells is largely optimistic about the network society, believing that ultimately leads to more connected, productive, accepting and open-minded Global society.
- Critics of Castells’ theory content that it is utopian and idealistic, technologically deterministic, and ahistorical, but it remains influential in the sociological understanding of the relationship between new technologies and society.
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