The Network Society The Network Society A Cross-cultural Perspective Edited by Manuel Castells Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California, Los Angeles and Research Professor, Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA © Manuel Castells 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited Glensanda House Montpellier Parade Cheltenham Glos GL50 1UA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. 136 West Street Suite 202 Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data The network society : a cross-cultural perspective / edited by Manuel Castells. p. cm. 1. Information society—Cross-cultural studies. I. Castells, Manuel. HD851.N475 2004 303.48′33—dc22 2004043491 ISBN 1 84376 505 5 (cased) Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters, Frimley, Surrey Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Contents List of figures viii List of tables ix Notes on contributors xi Acknowledgments xvi Editor’s preface xvii PART ITHE THEORY OF THE NETWORK SOCIETY 1 Informationalism, Networks, and the Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint 3 Manuel Castells PART II THE CULTURAL AND INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY OF THE NETWORK SOCIETY 2 Institutional Models of the Network Society: Silicon Valley and Finland 49 Pekka Himanen and Manuel Castells 3 The Russian Network Society 84 Elena Vartanova 4 The Internet in China: Technologies of Freedom in a Statist Society 99 Jack Linchuan Qiu 5 Reflexive Internet? The British Experience of New Electronic Technologies 125 Steve Woolgar PART III THE NETWORK ECONOMY 6 Why Information Should Influence Productivity 145 Marshall Van Alstyne and Nathaniel Bulkley 7 Labor in the Network Society: Lessons from Silicon Valley 174 Chris Benner 8Time, Space, and Technology in Financial Networks 198 Caitlin Zaloom v vi Contents PART IV SOCIABILITY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET 9 Networked Sociability Online, Off-line 217 Keith N. Hampton 10 Social Structure, Cultural Identity, and Personal Autonomy in the Practice of the Internet: The Network Society in Catalonia 233 Manuel Castells, Imma Tubella, Teresa Sancho, Maria Isabel Díaz de Isla, and Barry Wellman 11 Racial Segregation and the Digital Divide in the Detroit Metropolitan Region 249 Wayne E. Baker and Kenneth M. Coleman PART V THE INTERNET IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST 12 The Promise and the Myths of e-Learning in Post-secondary Education 271 Tony Bates 13 e-Health Networks and Social Transformations: Expectations of Centralization, Experiences of Decentralization 293 James E. Katz, Ronald E. Rice, and Sophia K. Acord 14 Narrowing the Digital Divide: The Potential and Limits of the US Community Technology Movement 319 Lisa J. Servon and Randal D. Pinkett PART VI NETWORKED SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND INFORMATIONAL POLITICS 15 Networked Social Movements: Global Movements for Global Justice 341 Jeffrey S. Juris 16 From Media Politics to Networked Politics: The Internet and the Political Process 363 Araba Sey and Manuel Castells PART VII THE CULTURE OF THE NETWORK SOCIETY 17 Television, the Internet, and the Construction of Identity 385 Imma Tubella 18 Globalization, Identity, and Television Networks: Community Mediation and Global Responses in Multicultural India 402 Anshu Chatterjee Contents vii 19 The Hacker Ethic as the Culture of the Information Age 420 Pekka Himanen Afterword: An Historian’s View on the Network Society 432 Rosalind Williams Index 449 Figures 2.1 Technological development measured by the UN Technology Achievement Index, 2001 51 2.2 Economic competitiveness measured by the World Economic Forum Growth Competitiveness Index, 2002 52 2.3 Labor productivity in manufacturing based on the OECD STAN database 52 2.4 Social inequality and exclusion in the US and Finland, 1950–1990 54 2.5 Share of public funding in private research and development, 1987–1999 58 2.6 The Silicon Valley model of the new economy 62 2.7 Level of start-up activity, 2001 63 2.8 National R&D investment as a percentage of GDP, 1985–2001 64 2.9 The Finnish model of the information society 68 2.10 An example of Nokia project networking 71 2.11 Share of Tekes funding in Nokia’s R&D 72 2.12 Private R&D investment as a share of the total (%), 1981–2001 73 2.13 Entrepreneurial motivation (scale 1–5) 77 2.14 Venture capital market in Europe as a whole and in selected European countries 78 2.15 Labor productivity growth in Finland (1985 = 100) 79 4.1 The concentration of Internet resources in the core region of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong Province 105 6.1 Moving along the efficient production frontier (e.g. resource substitution) 149 6.2 (a) Moving to the frontier (e.g. better decisions); (b) Shifting the frontier (e.g. new processes) 152 12.1 The continuum of e-learning in formal education 274 viii Tables 2.1 Production of technology and social inclusion 53 2.2 Top five Silicon Valley information technology companies 55 2.3 Top five Finnish information technology companies 66 3.1 Dynamics of the Russian Internet audience 88 3.2 Areas of residence of Runet visitors 89 4.1 Demographic comparison: Internet users vis-à-vis average Chinese 104 7.1 Dimensions of flexible labor 177 7.2 Indicators of flexible employment in Silicon Valley 182 9.1 Seeking advice from family 224 10.1 Distribution of Internet users according to Internet use 240 10.2 Results of factor analysis of variables indicative of projects of autonomy 245 11.1 Black–white segregation and black isolation in top metropolitan areas in the United States 252 11.2 Patterns of computer and Internet use by race, gender, age, education, household income, employment status, family structure, and location 254 11.3 OLS and logistic coefficients from the regression of computer and Internet use on income, education, age, race, gender, employment status, location, and family 257 11.4 Activities done on the Internet in the past 12 months by race and location 260 11.5 Logistic coefficients from regression of inter-neighborhood and inter-racial socializing on income, education, age, race, gender, employment status, location, family structure, and computer and Internet usage 262 12.1 Rough estimate of e-learners globally, 2002–2003 279 13.1 Use of the Internet and Internet healthcare resources by the US public, 1997–2002 295 13.2 Comparison of features of Internet patient decision-support tools of some leading providers 301 13.3 Use of online resources by physicians in the United States 307 ix x Tables 13.4 Physician reports of the percentage of their patients who talked to them in person about information that the patient has obtained from the Internet 308 13.5 Physician assessment of effect on physician/patient relationship of patient presenting Internet-derived information 309 14.1 Dimensions of the digital divide 322 16.1 Internet use for political purposes in the US, 1998–2002 369 18.1 Community language channels, 1990–2002 405 18.2 Audience share of major channels in three states, 1999 407 Notes on contributors Sophia K. Acord is a PhD candidate in Sociology and the Philosophy of Culture at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Her research inter- ests include applied drama as well as issues of social hierarchy in the culture of contemporary art. Wayne E. Baker is Professor of Management and Organizations and Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, and Faculty Associate at the Institute for Social Research. He is the Principal Investigator for the 2003 Detroit Area Study and Principal Investigator and Team Leader for the Detroit Arab American Study. His research interests include economic sociol- ogy, networks and social capital, organizations, and culture. Tony Bates is a private consultant specializing in the planning and manage- ment of e-learning in higher education. Between 1995 and 2003 he was Director of Distance Education and Technology at the University of British Columbia, following five years as Executive Director, Strategic Planning, at the Open Learning Agency, Vancouver, Canada. He was a founding staff member of the British Open University, working there from 1969 to 1989, becoming Professor of Educational Media Research. He is the author of eight books on educational media, distance education, and the management of learn- ing technologies. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, OECD, UNESCO, Ministries of Education in several countries, and state higher education commissions in the USA, as well as to many universities and colleges. He is currently advising the Open University of Catalonia on research into e-learning. He has a PhD in educational administration from the University of London, and has honorary degrees from Laurentian University and the Open University of Portugal. Chris Benner is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Pennsylvania State University. His work focuses on labor markets and regional development in the information economy, paying particular attention to the relationship between the diffusion of information technologies and the transformation of work and employment patterns. His book Work in the New Economy was published in 2002. He received his doctorate in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. xi xii Notes on contributors Nathaniel Bulkley is a PhD student at the University of Michigan School of Information. His dissertation work focuses on the relationship between infor- mation management practices and productivity in the context of executive recruiting. Manuel Castells is the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.