[Week4_2] Networked societies.

When Castells talks about the 'Information Age', he refers mainly to the networked nature of social forms. One of the most important unique claims he makes is that "the communication between networks and social actors depends increasingly on shared cultural codes". And to think of it, shared cultural codes are derived from communication between networks and social actors. Thus the role of communication becomes more and more important in a information society. Information is not only a form of new 'goods', but the essential bond that holds this kind of society together.

He continues his argument of the networked society in his second piece, that the role of networks emphasize the new economy, and the city becomes even more important as the social unit. Networks are on the rise, but personal isolation and loss of shared meaning occurs as well. The remedy he suggests is a more networked society (as illustrated in his example of Europe), where values are shared among people. Well, if that kind of 'sharing' proves to be economically profitable, it will be solved sooner than expected. However, Castells seems to separate the economy functions and the social process a little too distinctly.

Garnham considers Castells' explanations as a form of dominant ideology of today. Being an ideology does not necessarily mean that it is false, but it implies that it is a kind of interpretation with its specific intentions rather than the naked truth. And in this ideology that puts information-communication technologies as its main engine, it is taken lightly that the networked society is an extension of the previous capitalist society. That's a valid argument, but I can't help but think that Garnham underestimates the role of communication structures - networks - in our daily life and social behavior. ICTs are in some aspects merely reproducing and enlarging existing communication patterns, but in other aspects they build new forms of social communication as well. It is not a either-or quetion, but what elements are introduced and what their specific roles are.