End of the Millennium

by Manuel Castells

Book Overview

The final volume in Manuel Castells' trilogy is devoted to processes of global social change induced by interaction between networks and identity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557868727
• ISBN13: 9781557868725
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Is information technology the culprit?

Many of the observations Prof. Catells made are valid, however the connection between information technology and the social problems are not very strong. The network states, global criminal society, wealth disparity, etc. are more or less the byproduct of globalization. Yes, information technology accelerates the rate of globalization. But would those social problems exist without information technology? Mostly likely yes. These phenomena are not new, they predate the advent of the Information Age (the World Wide Web and mass adoption of internet is a post-1990 phenomenon). Multinatioal organizations (or globalization) have been around for many decades, same goes for the North-South polical economic paradigm. So, attributing all these social problems to the Information Age (at least that is the impression I got out of it) may not be an accurate representation. Nonetheless, his trilogy does demonstrate the acute problem of a global digital divide, and he suggested some possible solutions in some of his other books.

This is an outstanding book that deals with our world.

I read this book as a stand-alone book even though it is No. 3 of a trilogy. Castells deals with the most important issues of our times, and he does so, in a serious, scholarly, but readable way. This book is "must" reading for people in economics, politics, policy studies as well as in the other social sciences. Interested lay persons will find this book quite accessible..