From Information Society to Information Age - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 44

concepts and controversies of the social sciences with new ones.
States, societies and physical space are no longer the core concepts
for understanding modern societies in the Information Age, according
to Castells. Flows and networks replace them. Central in his analysis
is the tension between the 'space of flows' and the 'space of places'.
The new institutional makeup of the network society is to be under-
stood in direct relation to a new layer or dimension emerging within
and in between our societies. This new layer, the 'space of flows', should
be understood not as a new layer in the geographical meaning of the
word, but, rather, in terms of a new kind of time-space organization
of social practices. The space of flows refers to new social dynamics -
to new concepts of time, space and power. But the notion of space of
flows also has a substantial connotation in Castells's work. The domi-
nance of the space of flows then refers to the power elites that operate
at the most crucial nodes of the global networks, knowing best how to
handle the switches, codes, and programs (cf. Castells, 2004 ), which
govern global flows of money, capital and information, at the expense
of the vast majority of ordinary people living their lives in the space
of place. 6 The only option left to the locals is protest and resistance
against the disturbing and exploitative character of the space of flows.
Although Castells is the first to argue that the logic of the space of
flows will not be displayed in the network society without resistance,
his analysis of the new constitution definitely has a deterministic ring
to it, with the space of flows performing as a stand-in for a very pow-
erful class of global capitalists. From this perspective, the new social
order of the network society should not be seen in association with
the positive image of the new dynamics of 'the Internet society' (as
several predecessors of the Information Society did). Instead, this new
social order manifests itself as a meta-social disorder (Castells, 1996 :
477), an order derived from the exploitative and uncontrollable logics
of markets, genes and (information) technology.
In that sense, Castells's network society analysis combines elements
of both the optimists of the Information Society as well as their crit-
ics. But Castells's ideas, as well as those of his contemporaries in this

6

With the space of places, Castells ( 1996 : 378, 423ff) refers to the place-based
spatial organization of social life, as commonly perceived and experienced by
the majority of citizens in advanced and developing societies.