Knowra Manuel Castells Manuel Castells Manuel Castells is a Spanish sociologist whose work examines communication, globalization, urban change, and the rise of the information society. His trilogy The Information Age analyzes how networked technologies reshape economies, politics, and culture.
Network society : A social structure organized around networks enabled by information and communication technologies. Castells uses this concept to describe societies reorganized by flows of information across networks.
The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture : A trilogy by Manuel Castells examining the rise of network society and its economic, political, and cultural effects. This is the central work in which Castells develops his account of the information age.
Urban sociology : The study of social life, institutions, and change in urban settings. Castells’s early research on cities helped shape his later analysis of space and power.
Alain Touraine : A French sociologist known for work on social movements, modernity, and social action. Touraine influenced Castells’s sociological approach to social movements and collective action.
Technological determinism : The view that technology independently drives social change and determines social outcomes. Castells links technology to social institutions and power rather than treating it as an autonomous cause.
Information society : A society in which producing, processing, and communicating information have major economic and social importance. It names the broad transformation that Castells analyzes in his work.
The Rise of the Network Society : The first volume of Castells’s trilogy, analyzing the technological and economic foundations of network society. It lays out the structural changes underlying his broader theory.
Communication power : The capacity to shape social meaning and influence through communication processes and media. Castells examines how communication networks distribute and contest power.
Henri Lefebvre : A French philosopher and sociologist whose work examined everyday life, space, and urban society. Lefebvre’s account of socially produced space informs debates surrounding Castells’s urban sociology.
Globalization : The growing interdependence of societies through cross-border flows of goods, capital, people, and information. Castells’s network society is one account of how globalization is organized and experienced.
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