Manuel Castells facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Most Excellent
Manuel Castells
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Castells in 2020
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| Minister of Universities | |
| In office 13 January 2020 – 20 December 2021 |
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| Monarch | Felipe VI |
| Prime Minister | Pedro Sánchez |
| Preceded by | Pedro Duque (Universities) |
| Succeeded by | Joan Subirats |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 February 1942 Hellín, Albacete, Spain |
| Spouse | Emma Kiselyova |
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| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Known for | Research on the information society, communication and globalization Organization theory Network society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Sociology, urban planning, communication studies |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge; University of Southern California; Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia); EHESS; University of Paris X: Nanterre |
| Doctoral students | Ananya Roy Sasha Costanza-Chock |
| Other notable students | Daniel Cohn-Bendit |
Manuel Castells Oliván (born 9 February 1942) is a famous Spanish sociologist. He is known for his important books about the information society. This is a way of life where information and technology are very important. He also studies communication and globalization, which is how countries and people around the world become more connected.
Castells is a professor of sociology at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in Barcelona. He also teaches at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. For 24 years, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley. He is considered one of the most-cited social science scholars in the world.
In 2012, Castells won the Holberg Prize. This award recognized how he helped us understand how cities and global economies work in the network society. In 2013, he received the Balzan Prize for his ideas about how technology changes our world. From January 2020 to December 2021, he was the Minister of Universities in the Spanish government.
Contents
Biography
Early life and activism
Manuel Castells was born on February 9, 1942, in Hellín, Spain. His parents worked for the government. Because of his father's job, Castells moved a lot as a child. He lived in cities like Madrid, Cartagena, and Valencia.
Politics became important to Castells when he was young. He grew up in Spain when it was ruled by a strict government under Francisco Franco. Castells felt he had to stand up against this government. When he was 18, he joined a secret group that opposed Franco. This was very dangerous.
He studied Law and Economics at the University of Barcelona. He was also interested in literature and theater. But the government censored plays and shut down student newspapers. This made him even more determined to fight for freedom. In 1962, he joined a strike to support miners. Many of his friends were arrested. Castells had to escape to France to avoid arrest. He could not finish his degree in Spain.
In Paris, at age 20, he continued his studies. He earned a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Paris in 1967.
Catalan identity
Castells feels a strong connection to Catalonia, a region in Spain. He spent much of his teenage years in Barcelona, which is the center of the Catalan movement. His family also has roots there.
Under Franco's rule, the Catalan language was not taught in schools. Even though his family spoke Spanish, Castells taught himself Catalan at university. This helped him feel more connected to his Catalan identity. He supports the Catalan people but does not want Catalonia to be a separate country.
Academic career
When he was 24, Castells started teaching at universities in Paris. He taught from 1967 to 1979. He taught at Paris X University Nanterre and later at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
In 1979, he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught sociology and city planning there. Later, he became a research professor at the Open University of Catalonia in Spain. In 2003, he joined the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. He became a professor of communication there.
Castells now divides his time between Spain and the United States. He has also been involved in important European organizations. From 2020 to 2021, he served as the Minister of Universities in Spain.
Ideas and Contributions
Manuel Castells combines many different fields in his work. These include how cities work, how organizations are set up, how the internet affects us, social movements, and how culture and politics are linked to money. He believes that changes in how businesses are organized happened even before the internet became popular.
The Information Age
Castells' most famous work is a set of three books called The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. In these books, he looks at three main parts of society: how things are made (production), how power works, and how people experience life. He says that how the economy, government, and people's actions are organized are all connected but also separate.
Castells explains that our societies are becoming more focused on two things: the "Net" and the "Self." The "Net" means the network organizations that are replacing old, top-down structures. The "Self" means how people find their own identity and meaning in a world that is always changing. He believes that the Information Age can "unleash the power of the mind." This could make people more productive and give them more free time. He thinks this change could be good because it might lead to less resource use.
Castells also studied how the Internet developed. He showed how governments, the military, universities, hackers, and businesses all played a part in shaping this new technology.
Informationalism
Castells uses the idea of "Informationalism" to describe modern life. He says that society is moving away from thinking of itself like a "machine" and more like a "network." Since the 1970s, information technology has allowed businesses and organizations to form huge global networks. The world is moving away from industrialism, which focused on making things and economic growth. Informationalism focuses on creating knowledge and building massive networks.
This growth of networks is linked to capitalism. As networks get bigger, governments play a smaller role in the capitalist system. Shared information systems connect networks across the globe.
However, Castells notes that this growth can leave some people out. Areas not connected to these global networks find it hard to keep up. These excluded communities might create their own systems, sometimes through illegal activities. Castells explains that resistance to globalization often comes from people who feel left out. He says, "If I have no value for these global networks... then I build my own value, my own system. I build my family. I build my nation. I build my God."
From Marxism to new ideas
In the 1970s, Castells was very interested in the ideas of Karl Marx. He felt that Marx's ideas helped him understand political change. His early work, like The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach (1972), looked at how social movements change cities. He argued that city problems are not separate from society but are part of bigger issues.
Castells also talked about "collective consumption." This means public services like public transport or housing. He showed how struggles over these services could lead to social change.
Today, Castells no longer calls himself a Marxist. He realized that Marx's ideas, which mainly focus on social class, could not explain everything he was interested in. By moving away from Marxism, he could explore topics like gender, urban social movements, and nationality in a deeper way. He still cares about ideas like social change and power, but he uses different "tools" or theories to understand them. He said, "I became more political when I left Marxism."
In the 1980s, he focused on how new technologies changed the economy. He introduced the idea of the "space of flows." This describes how information and goods move quickly across the world through global networks.
His three-book series, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, brought together all his ideas. The books are: The Rise of the Network Society (1996), The Power of Identity (1997), and End of Millennium (1998). These books were very popular and helped people understand the modern world.
Thinking Critically About Castells' Ideas
Manuel Castells' work has received some feedback and discussions. Some people compare his ideas to "functionalism." This means they think his theories sometimes make big statements about society without focusing enough on individual people.
There are also questions about how much of the world is truly "dominated" by these large information networks. The world is very diverse, and not everyone is connected in the same way. These networks are useful for studying global connections, but we should be careful not to think they explain everything about the real world.
Some scholars also point out that Castells' theories sometimes suggest there is "little chance of social change" within the network society. This might seem to support things staying the way they are. This can be a concern for people working for social change and fairness. Also, some wonder why Castells, who talks a lot about global connections, doesn't explore how these connections could help protect human rights and different cultures around the world.
See also
In Spanish: Manuel Castells para niños
