End of Millennium (The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume III) (Vol 3) [Paperback]

Manuel Castells (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631221395 | ISBN-13: 978-0631221395 | Publication Date: January 15, 2000 | Edition: 2nd

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Manuel Castells concludes the Information Age trilogy by considering the intersection of the global network society and factional project identities. As always, the scope of Castell's argument is far-ranging. Among the subjects addressed are the collapse of the Soviet Union; the potential emergence of the Asian Pacific as the next region of major world power; and the rapidly increasing growth of a "Fourth World"-- a series of "black holes of informational capitalism" (areas that have been cut off from the flow of wealth and information in the global economy) that refuses to confine itself to national borders--as likely to appear in the American inner city as it is in sub-Saharan Africa. He also raises the specter of a "global criminal economy," a dark counterpart to transnational corporations, and suggests that trends such as fascination with gangster movies "may well indicate the cultural breakdown of traditional moral order, and the implicit recognition of a new society, made up of communal identity and unruly competition." End of Millennium is perhaps the most accessible of Castell's three volumes, expertly reading the pulse of late-20th-century social trends. It's bound to provoke debate about any efforts to shape the trends of the 21st century. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The most compelling attempt yet made to map the contours of the global information age." Anthony Giddens, New Statesman.

"A superlative achievement. Castells has succeeded in producing a study that positively invites comparison with Marx. As Marx in Capital sought to analyze the operation and social tensions of early industrial capitalism, so Castells in his trilogy aims to understand the system, global informational capitalism, that is replacing it. He has thus set himself the ultimate challenge; the confirmation is already to hand that he has met it." Peter Hall, Cities.

"Not since Weber has there been such a determined and largely successful effort to bring to bear the results and analytical perspectives of all the social sciences on the evolution of society. It is to be hoped that his book will be read by social scientists of all kinds, but especially by economists since they, probably more than anyone else, need to be reminded that Max Weber was a professor of economics." Chris Freeman, New Political Economy.

"A magnum 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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 2nd edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631221395
• ISBN-13: 978-0631221395
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an outstanding book that deals with our world., August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: End of Millennium (Information Age Series) (Vol 3) (Paperback)

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..

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is information technology the culprit?, February 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: End of Millennium (The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume III) (Vol 3) (Paperback)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars A little outdated?, October 11, 2010

By 

Margarita Jaitner (Kornwestheim, DE) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: End of Millennium (The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume III) (Vol 3) (Paperback)

The book delivers a good overview of the world in the "end of the millennium". However, it's 2010 and the world has continued to develop making further research is necessary.