The+Network+Society

The term Network Society was coined by Manuel Castells as part of his extensive analysis of the modern information society, and clarifies the fact that it is not only the information technology that has lead us into the modern world but various cultural, economical and political factors also blend together to create this society. However the information technology is so important that without it the network society would not exist. The network society consists of:


 * 1. An information economy**: an economy where productivity and competitiveness depends upon knowledge and information more than ever.


 * 2. The Global Economy**: refers to the fact that in the network society the economies of most of the world’s nations have become increasingly interconnected. There is an extensive networking in the financial/currency markets, business services, technological innovation, IT manufacturing and media communication industries.


 * 3. The network enterprise**: the key concept here is connectivity of the global economy. It is a network made from firms or divisions of firms or from internal division of firms. The system is more decentralized and every one has equal power to receive and disseminate information. It also includes linkups between firms and networks of small business firms through sub contracting and out sourcing.


 * 4. The transformation of work and employment**: work places have undergone major change as we shift into the modern information society. It has changed waged employers to “flexi-workers” and workplaces are more flexible. Instead of wages now the employees are entitled to performance pay. The network society has brought about a change that emphasizes “individualization” of work and the bargaining power of the labor workers.


 * 5. Social Polarization and exclusion**: Countries ahead in technology, like the UK and US, have caused an increase in inequalities, social polarization and social exclusion. There is an increasing amount of wealth at the top and unemployment, poverty and illiteracy at the bottom. Other problems include family disruption. Homelessness, drugs, crime etc. These things have caused exclusion of these countries from the information rich societies.


 * 6. The culture of real virtuality**: with the information age we are moving towards mass production of customized goods and information. Media possibilities have become extraordinarily diverse, and networking plays a major role. Targeted messages can be sent to specific audiences (also known as narrowcasting), where messages are specific to the needs and moods of the audiences. Before the network society information was being mass produced and mass consumed. In this age, however, market segmentation allows for the division of specific audiences that the firm caters and narrowcasts information to suit the taste and wants of a specific audience.


 * 7. Politics:** in all countries, media has become an essential space for politics. In this information age extensive political advertising, targeted mailing, image control and image making/unmaking takes place.


 * 8. Timeless time**: the information age has brought about new forms of time and space: timeless time and the space of flows. The network society has created the potential to annihilate time, compress years into seconds. All the barriers of time that existing in the industrial society have been removed in this post industrial society, owing to the information technology, that is fast, cheap and efficient.


 * 9. The Space of Flows**: is the material organization of time sharing social practices that work through flows.


 * Conclusion:
 * Thus a Network society is a post industrial society where the dominant structure is created around “networks”. It is not solely made from information technology; however it could not exist without it either, as networking largely depends on information technology. Historically, information and goods were mass produced and were standardized. But society went through morphological change because of the new network architecture and an open ended, flexible, ever evolving and expanding society became known as our modern, network society.


 * Rerence Cited:**

Webster, Frank. The information Society Reader. "The Network Society". 2004. pg 133-165