The Power of Identity

In this second volume of The Information Age trilogy, with an extensive new preface following the recent global economic crisis, Manuel Castells deals with the social, political, and cultural dynamics associated with the technological transformation of our societies and with the globalization of the economy.

• Extensive new preface examines how dramatic recent events have transformed the socio-political landscape of our world
• Applies Castells' hypotheses to contemporary issues such as Al Qaeda and global terrorist networks, American unilateralism and the crisis of political legitimacy throughout the world
• A brilliant account of social, cultural, and political conflict and struggle all over the world
• Analyzes the importance of cultural, religious, and national identity as sources of meaning for people, and its implications for social movement
• Throws new light on the dynamics of global and local change

Manuel Castells is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and Professor of Sociology at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona. He is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Technology and Society at M.I.T., and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Internet Studies at Oxford University. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, C. Wright Mills Award, the Robert and Helen Lynd Award from the American Sociological Association, and the Ithiel de Sola Pool Award from the American Political Science Association. He is a Fellow of the European Academy, a Fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has received 16 honorary doctorates from universities around the world. He has authored 23 books, among which are: the trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture, first published by Blackwell in 1996-8, which has been translated into 20 languages; and Communication Power (2009).