The information age : economy, society and culture

The final volume in Manuel Castells' trilogy is devoted to processes of global social change induced by interaction between networks and identity. He studies empirically the collapse of the Soviet Union, tracing it back to the incapacity of industrial statism to manage the transition to the information age. He shows the rise of inequality, polarization, and social exclusion throughout the world, focusing on Africa, on urban poverty, and on children's plight. He documents the formation of a global criminal economy that deeply affects economies and politics in many countries. He analyzes the political and cultural foundations of the emergence of the Asian Pacific as a critically important region in the global economy. And he reflects on the contradictions of European unification, proposing the concept of the network state. In the general conclusion of the trilogy, included in this volume, Castells draws together the threads of his arguments and his findings, presenting a systematic interpretation of our world at this end of millennium.