Communication Power
ISBN13: 9780199567041ISBN10: 0199567042Hardback, 608 pages
Jul 2009, In Stock due Feb 01 2011
Price:
$34.95 (01)Description
We live in the midst of a revolution in communication technologies that affects the way in which people feel, think, and behave. The mass media (including web-based media), Manuel Castells argues, has become the space where political and business power strategies are played out; power now lies in the hands of those who understand or control communication.Over the last thirty years, Castells has emerged as one of the world's leading communications theorists. In this, his most far-reaching book for a decade, he explores the nature of power itself, in the new communications environment. His vision encompasses business, media, neuroscience, technology, and, above all, politics. His case histories include global media deregulation, the misinformation that surrounded the invasion of Iraq, environmental movements, the role of the internet in the Obama presidential campaign, and media control in Russia and China. In the new network society of instant messaging, social networking, and blogging--"mass self-communication"--politics is fundamentally media politics. This fact is behind a worldwide crisis of political legitimacy that challenges the meaning of democracy in much of the world.
Deeply researched, far-reaching in scope, and incisively argued, this is a book for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics and character of the modern world.
"How could Manuel Castells have predicted that now is the time of the perfect storm? I do not know. But I do know that his new book coincides with the largest downturn in global economies since the 1930s, with the most important American election since the 1960s, with a most radical transformation of world politics in many generations, and with the most profound reevaluation of the lives of modern citizens, from what they value to how they communicate. We have become used to Castells' careful scholarship and penetrating analyses but in this new book he cuts deeper into the heart of the matter. Sometimes he provides illuminating answers and where he cannot, he frames the questions that must be answered. This is a powerful and much needed book for a world in crisis."--Antonio Damasio
"Manuel Castells unites the mind of a social scientist with the soul of an artist. His trilogy took us to the edge of the millennium. This book takes us beyond to the critical crossroads of the 21st century, where technology, communication, and power converge."--Rosalind Williams, Director, Program on Science, Technology and Society, MIT
Features
- Manuel Castells is our foremost theorist of the power of communication in modern society
- This book is a natural progression from his 'Network Society' trilogy - a powerful, forward-looking analysis of communication in the Network Society
- Builds on some of the themes of Castell's 'Internet Galaxy' (OUP, 2001), and considers the social and political implications of recent phenomena such as social networking and blogging
- Draws on theories from across the social sciences: politics, sociology, psychology, communication studies, management studies
- Rich and wide-ranging, including examples from the author's experience of Franco's Spain, the operation of global media companies, and Barack Obama's campaign
Reviews
"Of much value... Manuel Castells has shaped himself into the most prominent and influential theorist and analyst of the modern communications and network age."--Financial Times
"Provides a bevy of illustrious examples of how grassroots campaigns could use the Internet to bring public attention to issues as diverse as climate change and the war in Iraq."--Forbes
"Manuel Castells unites the mind of a social scientist with the soul of an artist. His trilogy took us to the edge of the millennium. This book takes us beyond to the critical crossroads of the 21st century, where technology, communication, and power converge."--Rosalind Williams, Dibner Professor and Director, Program on Science, Technology and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Castells has done it again, a masterpiece of global perspective and enviable erudition. Moving beyond his trilogy on the information age, Castells focuses on how cultural, economic and particularly political power relationships are constituted and sustained through systematic communication flows. ... Case studies include global media deregulation, the politics of scandal, framing the war in Iraq, ecological social movements, the Obama presidential candidacy and a fascinating comparison of media control dynamics in Russia and China."--W. Russell Neuman, Evans Professor of Media Technology, University of Michigan
"How could Manuel Castells have predicted that now is the time of the perfect storm? I do not know. But I do know that his new book coincides with the largest downturn in global economies since the 1930s, with the most important American election since the 1960s, with a most radical transformation of world politics in many generations, and with the most profound reevaluation of the lives of modern citizens, from what they value to how they communicate. ... This is a powerful and much needed book for a world in crisis."--Antonio Damasio, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Director, Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California
Product Details
608 pages; Numerous figs. & tables; 6 1/8 x 9 1/4;ISBN13: 978-0-19-956704-1ISBN10: 0-19-956704-2About the Author(s)
Manuel Castells is the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, as well as Research Professor of Information Society at the Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor of Technology and Society at MIT and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Internet Studies at Oxford University. He has published 23 books, including the trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture , translated into 22 languages, and The Internet Galaxy (OUP, 2001) translated into 15 languages. He is a Fellow of the European Academy, of the British Academy and of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics. He has received 14 honorary doctorates and has been knighted by France, Catalonia, Finland, Chile, and Portugal.
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