Network Society

Abstract

In contrast to theories of social disintegration, certain scholars argue that new modes of sociality are emerging from new relations between individuals and being regenerated by new information communication technologies. Here, and in the following chapter, I explore the idea that the ‘regeneration of the social’ involves a technology-based recovery of community life through networks (Knorr-Cetina, 2000). Before looking at how new information technology is implicated in changing personal relationships in the next chapter, it is helpful to consider first the wider social context in which these new kinds of relationships are embedded. This chapter focuses, then, on global and macro social, economic and cultural changes. The rise of a network society is identified by Manuel Castells (1996–98) who argues that information communication technologies are facilitating emergent social identities and communities. The chapter begins by exploring changing patterns and meanings of work in network society. This is followed by an account of some of the ways the Internet is being integrated in the lives of individuals before going into the detail of the following chapter. Emergent diasporic networks are then addressed by charting the rise and significance of diasporic networks: intra-state, trans-state and ‘virtual nations’.