Communication Power in the Network Society

The world-renowned sociologist, Professor Manuel Castells, is to be the second Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media at the University of Cambridge, from 16 to 21 November 2011.

Professor Castells will give a series of free public lectures starting this week; the first, ’Communication, Power and the State in the Network Society’ will discuss the four different forms of power in the virtual society.

By using recent examples of social movements, particularly the Indignant Movements in Spain and the Occupy Wall Street in the US, Professor Castells will demonstrate how social change is formed through communicative action.

He will discuss how the technology – internet based social networks and wireless networks – and morphology of these communication networks shapes the process of mobilisation, thus of social change, both as a process and as an outcome.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011, at 17:00pm, in Room 9, Mill Lane Lecture Rooms, 8 Mill Lane, Cambridge.

Further events in the series are:

Social Movements in the Internet Age (1)

Thursday, 17 Nov 2011

Social Movements in the Internet Age (2)

Monday, 21 Nov 2011

Symposium: Communication Power in the Network Society

Wednesday, 23 Nov 2011

The lectures are free and open to all, no registration is required. However, free registration will be required for the symposium.

Professor Manuel Castells is University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Prior to his appointment at USC he was Professor of Sociology and Professor of City Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, for 24 years. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He has received 14 honorary doctorates from universities around the world. He has published 25 books including his trilogy ’The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture’ translated into 21 languages and ’Communication Power’ translated in 7 languages.

Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.