Toward a Sociology of the Network Society

Manuel Castells

Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 29, No. 5. (Sep., 2000), pp. 693-699.

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http://www.jstor.org Sun Mar 9 17:16:11 2008 Symposia 693

Toward a Sociology of the Network Society MANUELCASTELLS University of California, Berkeley

The Call to Sociology Information Age. We are needed because as The twenty-first century of the Common Era did would-be scientists of society we are positioned not necessarily have to usher in a new society. better than anyone else to produce knowledge But it did. People around the world feel the about the new society, and to be credible-or at winds of multidimensional social change with- least more credible than the futurologists and out truly understanding it, let alone feeling a ideologues that litter the interpretation of cur- grasp upon the process of change. Thus the chal- rent historical changes, let alone politicians lenge to sociology, as the science of study of soci- always jumping on the latest trendy word. ety. More than ever society needs sociology, but So, we are needed, but to do what? Well, to not just any kind of sociology. The sociology study the processes of constitution, organization, that people need is not a normative meta-disci- and change of a new society, probably starting pline instructing them, from the authoritative with its social structure-what I provisionally towers of academia, about what is to be done. It call the network society. is even less a pseudo~sociologymade up of emp- ty word games and intellectual narcissism, A New Society expressed in terms deliberately incomprehensi- Except for a few stubborn academic econo- ble for anyone without access to a French-Greek mists, there is widespread consensus that we dictionary. have entered a new economy. I contend we are Because we need to know, and because peo- also living in a new society, of which the new ple need to know, more than ever we need a economy is only one component. Since this sociology rooted in its scientific endeavor. Of society will unfold, throughout the world, during course, it must have the specificity of its object the twenty-first century, the survival of sociolo- of study, and thus of its theories and methods, gy as a meaningful activity depends on its renew- without mimicking the natural sciences in a al, in accordance with the new phenomena to be futile search for respectability. And it must have studied and the new analytical issues to be tack- a clear purpose of producing objective knowl- led. But what is this new society? Since the focus edge (yes! there is such a thing, always in rela- of this article is on sociology, not society, I have tive terms), brought about by empirical no option but to be schematic and declarative, observation, rigorous theorizing, and unequivo- rather than analytical, taking the liberty to refer cal communication. Then we can argue-and the reader to my trilogy on the matter (Castells we will!-about the best way to proceed with [I9961 2000a). Here are, in my view, the main observation, theory building, and formal expres- dimensions of social change that, together and sion of findings, depending on subject matter in their interaction, constitute a new social and methodological traditions. But without a structure, underlying the "new society." consensus on sociology as science-indeed, as a First is a new technological paradigm, based specific social science-we sociologists will fail on the deployment of new information tech- in our professional and intellectual duty at a nologies and including genetic engineering as time when we are needed most. We are needed the information technology of living matter. I because, individually and collectively, most peo- understand technology, following Claude ple in the world are lost about the meaning of Fischer (1992), as material culture-that is, as a the whirlwind we are going through. So they socially embedded process, not as an exogenous need to know which kind of society we are in, factor affecting society. Yet we must take seri- which kind of social processes are emerging, ously the material transformation of our social what is structural, and what can be changed fabric, as new information technologies allow through purposive social action. And we are the formation of new forms of social organiza- needed because without understanding, people, tion and social interaction along electronically rightly, will block change, and we may lose the based information networks. In the same way extraordinary potential of creativity embedded that the industrial revolution, based upon gener- into the values and technologies of the ation and distribution of energy, could not be 694 Symposia

separated from the industrial society that char- sentation is redefined as well, since democracy acterized the last two centuries, the information was constituted in the national enclosure. The technology revolution, still in its early stages, is more key decisions have a global frame of refer- a powerful component of multidimensional ence, and the more people care about their local social change. While new information technolo- experience, the more political representation gies are not causal factors of this social change, through the nation-state becomes devoid of they are indispensable means for the actual man- meaning other than as a defensive device, a ifestation of many current processes of social resource of last resort against would-be tyrants or change, such as the emergence of new forms of blatantly corrupt politicians. In another axis of production and management, of new communi- structural change, there is a fundamental crisis cation media, or of the globalization of economy of patriarchy, brought about by women's insur- and culture. gency and amplified by gay and lesbian social The second dimension of social change is, movements, challenging heterosexuality as a precisely, globalization, understood as the tech- foundation of family. There will be other forms nological, organizational, and institutional of family, as egalitarian values diffuse by the day, capacity of the core components of a given sys- not without struggle and setbacks. But it is diffi- tem (e.g., the economy) to work as a unit in real cult to imagine, at least in industrialized soci- or chosen time on a planetary scale. This is his- eties, the persistence of patriarchal families as torically new, in contrast with past forms of the norm. The real issue is how, at which speed, advanced internationalization, which could not and with which human cost, the crisis of patri- benefit from information and communication archy will extend, with its own specific forms, technologies able to handle the current size, into other areas around the world. The crisis of complexity, and speed, of the global system, as it patriarchy, of course, redefines sexuality, social- has been documented by David Held et alter ization, and ultimately personality formation. (1999). Because the crisis of the state and of the family, The third dimension is the enclosing of dom- in a world dominated by markets and networks, inant cultural manifestations in an interactive, is creating an institutional void, there are (and electronic hypertext, which becomes the com- increasingly will be) collective affirmations of mon frame of reference for symbolic processing primary identity around the key themes of reli- from all sources and all messages. The Internet gion, nation, ethnicity, locality, which will tend (248 million users currently, in 2000; 700 mil- to break up societies based on negotiated insti- lion projected by the end of 2001; 2 billion by tutions, in favor of value-founded communes. 2007) will link individuals and groups among Last, but not least, progress in scientific themselves and to the shared multimedia hyper- knowledge, and the use of science to correct its text. This hypertext constitutes the backbone of own one-sided development, are redefining the a new culture, the culture of real virtuality, in relationship between culture and nature that which virtuality becomes a fundamental compo- characterized the industrial era. A deep ecologi- nent of our symbolic environment, and thus of cal consciousness is permeating the human mind our experience as communicating beings. and affecting the way we live, produce, con- The fourth axis of change, largely a conse- sume, and perceive ourselves. We are just at the quence of the global networks of the economy, beginning of a most extraordinary cultural trans- communication, and knowledge and informa- formation that is reversing the course of thought tion, is the demise of the sovereign nation-state. that has prevailed among the world's dominant Not that current nation-states will disappear in groups since the Enlightenment. their institutional existence, but their existence This new society was produced during the as power apparatuses is profoundly transformed, last quarter of the twentieth century, through as they are either bypassed or rearranged in net- the interaction among three independent works of shared sovereignty formed by national processes that happened to coincide in time: the governments, supranational institutions, co- revolution in information technology; the national institutions (such as the European socioeconomic restructuring of both capitalism Union, NATO, or NAFTA), regional govern- and statism (with different fates for these antag- ments, local governments, and NGOs, all inter- onistic modes of production); and the cultural acting in a negotiated process of decision social movements that emerged in the 1960s in making. As a result, the issue of political repre- the United States and Western Europe. While Symposia 695

this multidimensional social change induces a omized by the Internet. Electronic communica- variety of social and cultural expressions in each tion systems give networks the capacity to specific institutional context, I propose the decentralize and adapt the execution of tasks, notion that there is some commonality in the while coordinating purpose and decision mak- outcome, if not in the process, at the level where ing. Therefore, flexibility can be achieved with- new social forms are constituted-that is, in the out sacrificing performance. Because of their social structure. At the roots of the new society, superior performing capacity, networks, through in all its diversity, is a new social structure, the competition, are gradually eliminating centered, network society. hierarchical forms of organization in their spe- cific realm of activity. The Network Society: The Social Structure of the Information Age A network is a set of interconnected nodes. The new society is made up of networks. Networks are flexible, adaptive structures that, Global financial markets are built on electronic powered by information technology, can perform networks that process financial transactions in any task that has been programmed in the net- real time. The Internet is a network of comput- work. They can expand indefinitely, incorporat- er networks. The electronic hypertext, linking ing any new node by simply reconfiguring different media in global/local connection, is themselves, on the condition that these new made up of networks of communication-pro- nodes do not represent an obstacle to fulfilling duction studios, newsrooms, computerized infor- key instructions in their program. For instance, mation systems, mobile transmission units, and all regions in the world may be linked into the increasingly interactive senders and receivers. global economy, but only to the point where they The global economy is a network of financial add value to the value-making function of this transactions, production sites, markets, and economy, by their contribution in human labor pools, powered by money, information, resources, markets, raw materials, or other com- and business organization. The network enter- ponents of production and distribution. If a prise, as a new form of business organization, is region is not valuable to such a network, it will made of networks of firms or subunits of firms not be linked up; or if it ceases to be valuable, it organized around the performance of a business will be switched off, without the network as a project. Governance relies on the articulation whole suffering major inconvenience. Naturally, among different levels of institutional decision networks based on alternative values also exist, making linked by information networks. And and their social morphology is similar to that of the most dynamic social movements are con- dominant networks, so that social conflicts take nected via the Internet across the city, the coun- the shape of network-based struggles to repro- try, and the world. gram opposite networks from the outside. How? Networks are, however, a very old form of By scripting new codes (new values, for instance) social organization. But throughout history, net- in the goals organizing the performance of the works had major advantages and a major prob- network. This is why the main social struggles of lem. Their advantages are flexibility and the information age lie in the redefinition of cul- adaptability, characteristics essential for manag- tural codes in the human mind. ing tasks in a world as volatile and mutable as The prevalence of networks in organizing ours. The problem was the embedded inability of networks to manage complexity beyond a criti- social practice redefines social structure in our cal size. Networks were historically useful for societies. By social structure I mean the organiza- personal interaction, for solidarity, for reciprocal tional arrangements of humans in relationships support. But they were bad performers in mobi- of production/consumption, experience, and lizing resources and focusing these resources on power, as expressed in meaningful interaction the execution of a given task. Large, centralized framed by culture. In the Information Age, these apparatuses usually outperformed networks in specific organizational arrangements are based the conduct of war, in the exercise of power, in on information networks powered by microelec- symbolic domination, and in the organization of tronics-based information technologies (and in standardized, mass production. Yet this substan- the near future by biologically based information tial limitation of networks' competitive capacity technologies). Under the conditions of this new, was overcome with the development of new emerging social structure, sociology rnust address information/communication technologies, epit- several conceptual and methodological issues in 696 Symposia

-- order to be equipped to analyze core processes of management and labor and the ephemeral char- social organization and social practice. acter of project-based, industrial organizations require a new conceptual apparatus, focusing on Theorizing Social Structure as networked relationships rather than on vertical Interactive Information Networks hierarchies. In this perspective, I propose to con- The study of social networks is well estab- ceptualize the new occupational structure lished in sociological research, spearheaded in around the interaction among three dimensions contemporary American sociology by Wellman of production relationships: value making, rela- (e.g., 1999), Fischer (e.g., 1992), and Grano- tion making, and decision making. vetter (e.g., 1985). There is also an internation- For value making, in an information-based al association for the study of social networks, production process, we may differentiate various which constitutes a fruitful milieu of research. It structural positions: the commanders (or strate- can provide concepts and methods that will fos- gists), the researchers, the designers, the integra- ter understanding of social networks as specific tors, the operators, and the human terminals. forms of organization and relationship, including Relation making defines another set of posi- electronic communication networks. Yet, while tions: the networkers, the networked, and the building on this tradition, I advance the notion switched-off. And the relative positioning in that twenty-first-century sociology will have to decision making differentiates among the expand the network-based perspective to the deciders, the participants, and the executors. analysis of the entire social structure, in accor- The three dimensions are analytically indepen- dance with current trends of social evolution. dent. Thus, the empirical observation of the var- This implies more than analyzing social net- ious arrangements among different positions in works. It will require reconceptualizing many the three dimensions built around the perfor- social processes and institutions as expressions of mance of a given project may yield some clues networks, moving away from conceptual frame- works organized around the notion of centers on the emergence of new social relationships of and hierarchies. production, at the source of new social structure. For the sake of communication, I will use two A second example: the transformation of spa- illustrations to make my case, taking them from tial structure, a classic theme of urban sociology. two different and very traditional sociological With the diffusion of electronically based com- fields: industrial sociology and urban sociology. I munication technologies, territorial contiguity will then draw some general theoretical implica- ceases to be a precondition for the simultaneity tions from this change of perspective. of interactive social practices. But "the death of The prevailing form of business organization distance" is not the end of the spatial dimension emerging in advanced societies and diffusing of society. First, the "space of places," based in throughout the global economy is the network meaningful physical proximity, continues to be a enterprise, which I define, in sociological terms, major source of experience and function for as the specific form of enterprise whose system of many people and in many circumstances. And means is constituted by the intersection of seg- second, distant, interactive communication does ments of autonomous systems of goals. It follows not eliminate space; it transforms it. A new form a complete transformation of relationships of of space emerges-"the space of flows." It is production and management, and thus of the made of electronic circuits and information sys- occupational structure on which social structure tems, but it is also made of territories, physical is largely based. How can we conceptualize the places, whose functional or symbolic meaning role of producers of information in their differ- depends on their connection to a network, ential position along an interactive network? rather than on its specific characteristics as How can we conceptualize the variable geome- localities. try of new industrial organizations, based on The space of flows is made of bits and pieces firms' permeable boundaries, bringing together of places, connected by telecommunications, workers, capital, and knowledge in specific pro- fast transportation, and information systems, jects that form, dissolve, and reform under a dif- and marked by symbols and spaces of intermedi- ferent configuration? Yes, work, workers, ation (such as airports, international hotels, exploitation, cooperation, conflict, and negotia- business centers, symbolized by de-localized tion do not disappear, but the ensuing individu- architecture). For instance, in recent years there alization of the relationship between has been considerable debate about the emer- Symposia 697

gence of "the global city." The global city is not each network's goals. Networks increase their just a major metropolitan center that ranks high value exponentially as they add nodes. In formal in the worldwide geography of management of terms, as proposed years ago by computer scien- wealth and information. For such cities (New tist and Internet entrepreneur Bob Metcalfe, the York, London, Tokyo, Paris, or Szo Paulo) we value of a net increases as the square of the num- already had the descriptive notion of "world ber of nodes on the net. (The precise formula is city," proposed 20 years ago. The global city, in V= n(z'-~), where V is the value of the network the strict analytical sense, is not any particular and n the number of nodes). Thus, a networked city. And empirically it extends to spaces locat- social structure is an open system than can ed in many cities around the world, some extra- expand indefinitely, as long as the networks large, others large, and still others not so large. included in the meta-network are compatible. The global city is made of territories that in dif- The issue arises, then, of the contradictions ferent cities ensure the management of the glob- among networks, which lead to conflicts and al economy and of global information networks. social change. In fact, network theory could help Thus, a few blocks in Manhattan are part of the solve one of the greatest difficulties in the expla- global city, but most of New York, in fact most nation of social change. The history of sociology of Manhattan, is very local, not global. These is dominated by the juxtaposition of and lack of globalized segments of Manhattan are linked to integration between the analysis of social struc- other spaces around the world, which are con- ture and the analysis of social change. nected in networks of global management, while Structuralism and subjectivism have rarely been being loosely connected to their territorial hin- integrated in the same theoretical framework. A terlands. perspective based on interactive networks as the So the global city is a network of noncon- common basis for social structure and social tiguous territories, reunited around the task of action may yield some theoretical results by managing globalism by networks that transcend ensuring the communication, within the same locality (Graham and Simon 2000). From this logic, between these two planes of human prac- theoretical perspective we can develop models tice. A social structure made up of networks is an to analyze the new spatial forms constituted interactive system, constantly on the move. around interterritorial networks, and then Social actors constituted as networks add and examine their differential relationship to their subtract components, which bring with them surrounding, local environments. Thus, it is the into the acting network new values and interests connection between local and global, rather defined in terms of their matrix in the changing than the "end of geography" in the age of glob- social structure. Structures make practices, and alization, that becomes the appropriate perspec- practices enact and change structures following tive for the new urban sociology (Borja and the same networking logic and dealing in similar Castells 1997).Networks of discontiguous places terms with the programming and reprogramming in interaction with a diverse range of localities of networks' goals, by setting up these goals on are the components of the new sociospatial the basis of cultural codes. structure. The central analytical question then A theory based on the concept of a social becomes how shared social meaning is produced structure built on dynamic networks breaks with out of disjointed spatial units reunited in a pure- the two reductionist metaphors on which sociol- ly instrumental, global logic (Castells 2000b). ogy was based historically: the mechanical view By redefining spatial structure on the basis of a of society as a machine made up of institutions networking logic, we open up a new frontier for and organizations; and the organicist view of one of the oldest sociological traditions, urban society as a body, integrated with organs with sociology. specific bodily functions. Instead, if we need a The analysis of social structures as a multidi- new metaphor, the sociology of the network mensional, evolving system of dynamic net- society would be built on the self-generating works may help explain social evolution in the processes discovered by molecular biology, as Information Age. Indeed, networks are dynamic, cells evolve and develop through their interac- self-evolving structures, which, powered by tion in a network of networks, within the body information technology and communicating and with their environment. Interactive net- with the same digital language, can grow, and works are the components of social structure, as include all social expressions, compatible with well as the agencies of social change. The soci- 698 Symposia

ology of the network society may be able to of young sociologists-those who will analyze bridge structure and practice in the same analyt- the network society. ical grasp. In doing so, they will be fortunate enough to have access to a huge pool of information via the A New Methodology? Internet. Given knowledge of languages (or The renewal of the study of society cannot automated translation programs), access to glob- proceed just on theoretical grounds. Sociology is al sources may liberate sociology from the an empirical science, within all the limits inher- embedded ethnocentrism of its observation. ent to the constraints of observation under non- Each study may be comparative or cross-cultural experimental conditions Thus, new issues, new in its approach, by contrasting observation gen- concepts, new perspectives require new tools. erated ex novo in a particular study to the accu- The emergence of interactive information net- mulated knowledge on the matter from global works as the backbone of social structure makes sources. Naturally, critique of sources as well as even more acute the need to take up the great- problems of methodological integration of est methodological challenge for empirical diverse data will be necessary requisites for use of research in sociology. While most of our analyt- this wealth of information. The practice of ical tools are based on linear relationships, most meta-analysis, in full development in other sci- social phenomena-even more so in the net- ences, particularly economics, may become a work society-are characterized by nonlinear standard tool of sociological research. This dynamics. But in the last two decades, we have would also require proper training and method- witnessed the development of numerous research tools able to deal with nonlinear rela- ological guidance for sociologists to benefit from tionships. expanded possibilities of information without On one hand, we have an expanding field of being overwhelmed by it. the new mathematics of complexity based on Overall, sociology should, and will, overcome notions such as fractals, emergent properties, the sterile, artificial opposition between quanti- autopoietic networks, and the like (Capra tative and qualitative research, and between 1996). Most of these mathematical discoveries theory and empirical study. In the perspective of remain confined to formal exercises with slight computational literacy, and with the formal relationship to empirical research. But they are integration of observations in a theory that con- tools ready to be used, transformed, and perfect- ceives social structure as a network of interactive ed by able researchers with both the knowledge networks, it does not really matter what cames of the tools and the substantive knowledge to from statistics or from ethnography. What mat- make sense of this formal language. ters is the accuracy of the observation, and its On the other hand, enhanced power of com- meaning. Thus, formal models scripted in the puters, and new, flexible computer programming computer programs must be theoretically languages, enable us to handle the complexity of informed, yet able to be given information apt to an interactive network structure in precise answer the questions raised in the theory. terms. Computer-based system analysis of The sociology of the network society will dynamic networks may constitute a fruitful develop through synergy among relevant theo- approach through which observation and theory rizing, computational literacy, and sociological can be reconciled without excessive social imagination. reductionism. Simulation models in the social sciences got off to a bad start in the 1960s References because their underlying theories were utterly Borja, Jordi and Castells, Manuel. 1997. Local and simplistic, and computer programs were techni- Global: The Management of Citles In the Information cally constrained by their set of rigid assump- Age. London: Earthscan. Capra, Fritjof. 1996. The Web of Life: A New Scientific tions. But new computing capacity, in dynamic Understanding of Living Systems. New York: interaction of alternative assumptions processed Doubleday. at high speed, may change everything-as is Carnoy, Martin. 2000. Work, Family, and Community already happening in biological research. In this in the Information Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard sense, computational literacy (that is, knowing University Press. how to interact with computers, rather than just Castells, Manuel. [I9961 2000a. The Information Age: run statistical programs) may be a fundamental Economy, Society, and Culture. 3 vols. 2d Ed. learning requirement for the current generation Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell. symposia 699

. 2000b. "The Culture of Cities in the Granovetter, Mark. 1985. "Economic Action and Information Age." Presented at conference on The Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness." Library of Congress, "Frontiers of the Mind in the American Journal of Sociology 19: 481-510. 21st Century." Forthcoming (2001) in The Castells Held, David, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt, Reader on Cities and Social Theory, edited by Ida and Jonathan Perraton. 1999. Global Susser. Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell. Transformations. Stanford, CA: Stanford Fischer, Claude. 1992. America Calling. Berkeley: University Press. University of California Press. Wellman, Barry, ed. 1999. Networks In the Global Graham, Stephen and Marvin Simon. 2000. Village: Life in Contemporary Communities. Splintering Networks. London: Routledge. Boulder. CO: Westview Press. Age Structure and Social Structure CHARLESC. GORDON Carleton lJniversity, Ottawa CHARLESE LONGINO,JR. Wake Forest Universiy

As sociology continues to evolve in the twenty- step beyond it. They connected individual aging first century, how will demographic structure be with historical time, so that those individuals understood? Demographic structure is minimal are seen as aging within a cohort context. As the basic knowledge about the members of a society. new century begins, Americans are aging within Yet it becomes interesting sociologically because an aging America. Settersten (1999) recently it is connected so intimately with our under- asserted, in this context, that the age structure standings of global social change, with social over time influences the number of people avail- organization, and with the everyday lives of peo- able to different roles in society, and thus popu- ple. Here we argue that the distinction between lation structure partially determines the amount demographic structure and social structure is an of competition for those roles within and arbitrary and artificial one. Actually, these struc- between age groups. The number of people in tures are very difficult to differentiate. line ahead for social security, for example, affects Population structure is a dynamic and changing the amount taken out of your paycheck. phenomenon, one that is enacted in everyday In addition, the age structure of the society life. Changes in population structure occur in may be seen as an "intervening variable" affect- shipping containers filled with illegal immi- ing the relations among other social processes. grants in North American ports. High popula- For example, the place of home ownership is tion densities occur in food lines and in traffic affected by the aging of those who do own prop- jams. Change in the age structure occurs in the erty. Under normal circumstances, middle-aged need for home care and in loss of the sense of self and older people are more likely than younger due to chronic illness. people to be homeowners. The rapid increase in In this essay we focus on age structure. As the construction of rental units when the baby rapid societal change occurs, cohort differences boom cohort began establishing independent become evident among age groups. Indeed, the residence pinpoints the intersection of popula- development of age cohorts as important ele- tion and economic processes. The market pres- ments of social structure is a product of cultural sure from the larger birth cohort inflated the and institutional change (Eisenstadt 1956). cost of housing and postponed homeownership Discussing birth cohorts as part of social change, for this age cohort (Forrest and Leather 1998). Ryder (1965) firmly wedded population struc- Furthermore, age structure is a useful tool in ture and social structure. That conception is a a world-systems perspective. Nations that have matter of not just social theorizing but commer- relatively young populations and are rapidly cial practice. For example, age-based marketing modernizing, such as several Asian nations, find is essentially a cohort-focused strategy. The seg- their populations aging very rapidly. It may be menting of markets by age and gender categories difficult to shift national policy focus just as is firmly fixed in business culture today. quickly from youthful to aging sectors. Riley and her colleagues (1968, 1988) took Consequently, nations with very young popula- Ryder's concept of birth cohort and moved a tions may tend to export young people as less http://www.jstor.org

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Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness Mark Granovetter The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 3. (Nov., 1985), pp. 481-510. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9602%28198511%2991%3A3%3C481%3AEAASST%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R