Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #498589 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.21 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Castells, best known for his three-volume study The Information Age (Blackwell), an analysis of societal changes wrought by communications advances, trims that work to appeal to readers who were daunted by its 1,200 pages, $80 paperback price and ponderous prose. In this excellent, readable, nontechnical summary of the history, social implications and likely future of Internet business, Castells, professor of planning and of sociology at Berkeley, covers institutions like the World Wide Web Consortium, which "presides over the protocols and development" of the Web, and phenomena like the Internet's immense ability to simultaneously liberate and exclude. There are still too many sentences like "It is fair to say that most hackers live normal lives, at least as normal as most people, which does not necessarily mean that hackers (or anybody else) fit into the ideal type of normalcy, conforming to the dominant ideology in our societies," leaving readers wondering if hackers' lives are normal or not, and whether he's trying to give a sociological side lesson. Those willing to overlook such prosodic lapses will appreciate the astute accounts of, e.g., the complications for early grassroots online citizen networks headed by community activists, but seen by many as an opportunity to move beyond their local community.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Based on the author's Clarendon Lectures in Management at Oxford University, this work focuses on the Internet and the future of networked societies. More specifically, Castells (sociology, Univ. of California, Berkeley; The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture) examines cultures spawned by the Internet as well as the Internet's effects on culture. He provides balanced coverage of e-business and the new economy; the politics of the Internet, including privacy and freedom; and the geography of the Internet. Thereafter, he considers how those topics have influenced the globalization of the Internet and the growing digital divide. This thoroughly researched volume features numerous international examples and statistics that effectively illustrate key points and make the book truly global in scope. With his knack for analyzing contemporary society, Castells has produced a timely book indeed. Including constructive lists of "reading links" and "e-links" at the end of each chapter, the text would serve as a good companion for courses in the social and computer sciences. Highly recommended for academic libraries. Colleen Cuddy, New York Univ. Sch. of Medicine Lib.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
`... a wealth of new material on the new economy, e-commerce, digital politics, virtual communities and the digital divide ... sheds some much-needed empirical light on the geography of Web-based communications ... The Internet Galaxy is a tour d'horizon of some recent developments in the Internet and related technologies ... The author is a noted social theorist and one of the world's best-known computer intellectuals ... The Internet Galaxy offers a highly distinctive antidote to the teleology and hype which has surrounded discussion of the Internet and other ICTs.' Prometheus

`A readable, articulate and persuasive account of why the internet's most powerful impacts on the shape of business, politics and society may be yet to come. Castells is the nearest thing the internet has to a founding philosopher.' Charles Leadbetter - Financial Times

`One of Castells' great strengths is his ability to combine academic rigour with an appetite to engage with current social and economic trends. He brings to this task an impressive array of knowledge about cities, labour markets, business history and technology. As a result his writing combines a sense of excitement and energy, with the sage judgement needed to resist glib simplifications and address the complex factors driving the internet.' Charles Leadbetter - Financial Times

`One of Castells' great strengths is his ability to combine academic rigour with an appetite to engage with current social and economic trends... His writing combines a sense of excitement and energy, with the sage judgement needed to resist glib simplifications and address the complex factors driving the internet.' Charles Leadbetter - Financial Times

`A very readable and stimulating book.' Professor Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed'

`Manuel Castells is today the most insightful theoretician of the information society, perhaps the Marx or the Marcuse of the New Economy.' Federico Rampini, La Revista dei Libri, May 2000

`A magnus opus if ever there was one, these three books together constitute, in my view, the finest piece of contemporary social analysis for at least a generation.' Frank Webster, British Journal of Sociology 49, 1998

`Among technology's intelligentsia Castells has quickly earned a reputation as a pioneer, someone who has hacked out a logical, well-documented, and coherent picture of early 21st century civilization, even as it rockets forward largely in a blur.' Paul Van Slambrouck, The Christian Science Monitor, 27th November 1998

`The most compelling attempt yet made to map the contours of the global information age.' Anthony Giddens, New Statesman, 23rd January 1998