Response to Part 3 of the Reader Book
In his introduction to the Information age, Manuel Castells said that "identity-based social movements aimed at changing the cultural foundations of society to be the essential sources of social change in the Information Age." (p149) I found that a very interesting and thought-provoking argument. It also leads me to ask if the information technology has played or can play a similar role in changing worker's identity in economy and cultural foundations of society. I'm not sure. In the agricultural society, worker tends to be the master of his own work and knows the whole process. In the industrial age, worker becomes just one part of an assembly line and knows only his part of the work process. If the information age is a valid term and very different from the industrial age, should worker have a different identity of his relationship to his work? Have we seen any change? I haven't.
In his second article, Manuel Castells suggests that "the development of cities as cultural centers is the best information technology strategy for a city. Technoparks are finished."(p162) I can't help remembering many failed high tech parks in China. During the heydays of economic reforms in 1980s and 1990s, almost every town set up or planned to set up a high tech park and gave generous economic incentives to attract outside investment. But usually it's the parks in cosmopolitan cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen that actually see money flowing in. Those government officials in city planning departments should have read Castells' article.
Nicholas Garnham's critical article of Castells is a bit disorganized thus hard to follow for me. One part I understand and agree is the one about the network enterprise. He argues that "networks are essentially collaborative rather than competitive systems. ... Markets on the other hand need barriers ... Using a network for the mutual exchange of information with seamless interconnection of all with all is inherently incompatible with using the network as a technical infrastructure for competitive market relations." (p175)
In his second article, Manuel Castells suggests that "the development of cities as cultural centers is the best information technology strategy for a city. Technoparks are finished."(p162) I can't help remembering many failed high tech parks in China. During the heydays of economic reforms in 1980s and 1990s, almost every town set up or planned to set up a high tech park and gave generous economic incentives to attract outside investment. But usually it's the parks in cosmopolitan cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen that actually see money flowing in. Those government officials in city planning departments should have read Castells' article.
Nicholas Garnham's critical article of Castells is a bit disorganized thus hard to follow for me. One part I understand and agree is the one about the network enterprise. He argues that "networks are essentially collaborative rather than competitive systems. ... Markets on the other hand need barriers ... Using a network for the mutual exchange of information with seamless interconnection of all with all is inherently incompatible with using the network as a technical infrastructure for competitive market relations." (p175)
posted by Lisa Bu, Ph.D. at
6:39 PM
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