A Political Economy of New Times

Critical Reflections on the Network Society and the Ethos of Informational Capitalism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2397572
AutoresBarry Smart (0000-0002-6737-4571, University of Portsmouth, autor de correspondencia), Benjamin Smart (0000-0001-7035-3301, University of Portsmouth)
Año2000
Volumen3
Número1
Páginas51-65
Fecha de publicación2000-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13684310022224679
OpenAlexW2015935887
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas16

Situating Manuel Castells's three-volume work, The Information Age, within a broad tradition of classical social theory that has sought to come to terms with the emergence of new forms of social, economic and cultural life, critical consideration is given to a series of concerns, including questions of analytic perspective and in particular the relevance of the work of Marx; the concept of the network society; the movement from production to consumption as the primary medium through which individuals are engaged within contemporary society; and issues of identity and community. In contrast to Castells's identification of an ethical foundation or spirit of informationalism, it is argued that an aesthetics of consumption is central to modern society in its informational capitalist phase and that as society has become more exposed to the consequences of informationalism and the associated globalization of capital, the prospect of living in an ethically responsible manner has diminished significantly

Aesthetics · Capital (architecture · Consumption (sociology · Contemporary society · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Globalization · Identity (music · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Relevance (law · Social science · Sociology · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory