Communicative Power in a Globalized Network Society: Quick Look
Abstract
This Quick Look report details key aspects of Manuel Castells Network Society for the SMA IIJO effort, high lighting communication as a critical form of power in globalized modernity. Castells work describes networks as critical elements of an emerging socio-economic dynamic that essentially revolves around the processing and distribution of information through technologies. Though networks have long existed in the organization of human affairs, the technological interconnectivity of the 21st century is such that the organizational logic of modern societies revolves around networking that is to say, networks shape modern society (Pirogan and Katzenbach, 2017). The goal of this Quick Look is to outline and describe the most important features of the Network Society and discuss the implications of those features for approaches to the information environment (IE) by the Joint Force. No matter how capable the operator or well-designed the instrument, one cannot hit a ghost or strategically plan around abstraction. Castells Network Society offers a tangible conceptualization of the IE. Rather than discussing an ambiguously amorphous gray zone-esque space of communication-based competition, the Network Society overlays a sense of structure (albeit fluid) to the IE that makes it approachable, definable, and targetable. Communication processes and practices take on different forms and functions within networks that have implications for system control. In the Network Society, each individual is an assemblage of unique connections to information streams across different organizational, personal, and strategic networks. As a consequence, flows of information no longer follow typical sender-receiver models of communication. Instead, the communicative process is better understood as operating at an individual cognitive level, with each individual creatively reinterpreting and reshaping received messages around larger patterns of meaning from their surrounding networks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1118514
Entities
People
- Asya Cooley
- Robert S. Hinck
- Sara Kitsch
- Skye Cooley
Organizations
- Monmouth College
- Oklahoma State University–Stillwater