Manuel Castells (2015). Networks of Outrage
and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age (Second Edition). Cambridge:
Polity Press, pp. 316.
Manuel
Castells is an eminent sociologist who has revolutionized the way we understand
communication in societies, especially through his study of social movements. An
emeritus professor with the University of California Berkeley and a visiting professor
with Oxford, Cambridge and MIT, he has penned over 25 books, the most
celebrated of which are The Information
Age and Communication Power. In
this refreshing work on new social movements, originally a product of the
CRASSH lecture series of Cambridge, Castells dwells on the eruption of Arab
uprisings, indignadas of Spain, occupy
movements of the US, and the social protests in eastern Europe and Turkey that
have shaken the world in recent times. He attempts to understand what these
movements imply, in the context of our nebulous times.
Castells
examines the nature and scope of these social movements and asks whether the
qualification ‘new’ is apposite. He brings out the common characteristics of
these seemingly unrelated events. He argues that these movements initiated new
trends by ignoring political parties, often going beyond the hype of
ideologies. They also distrusted the traditional media and rejected formal
organization. These uprisings eschewed traditional leadership and relied on the
internet and local assemblies for collective debate and decision making. In
short, these social movements, according to Castells, used ‘autonomous networks
of communication’ that differentiated them from traditional social movements
that were embedded in societies.
Counter Power and Communication
Castells,
then goes on to delineate the power of ‘occupation’ that the new social
movements have consistently used. He argues that physical occupation of a town square
or a street, that was the central symbolic act of these movements, were also
symbols of invasion of state or financial power of institutions and an affirmation
of right to public and collective use of these spaces. Drawing historic parallels
between the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Glasgow strikes of 1915, he demonstrates
how the new social movements derive strength in solidarity and togetherness as
a weapon against risk, uncertainty, fear and exploitation. Castells’ core argument
is that although there are structural causes of institutions and individual
causes of emotion that makes social movements possible, the new movements are a
prescient sign of passionate politics and not a traditional type of political
program and strategy.
The
implications of Castell’s arguments are two-fold- (i) that the new social
movements are a product of a ‘networked’ society, and that (ii) these are
symbols of ‘counter power’. By employing a grounded theory approach to new
social movements, Castells demonstrates that the formation, dynamics, values,
prospects and enquiry into the new social movements bring out the facets of a ‘networked’
society with different nodes of operation. Social communication in these
networked societies has taken the form of ‘mass self-communication’, where an
individual can program and switch on networks of power because of her/his reach
through the new types of media. These communication strategies then emerge as a
form of counter power, against the coercion, legitimization and communication
of traditional power.
Whether
the new social movements have resulted in victories and concessions, or armed
repression and civil wars, they are rhizomatic (coming from the ground) and
have a democratic and radical appeal. The framework of communication and
examination of the power politics is an important and interesting lens with
which to evaluate these new movements. An exciting way to begin the new year
with a voice of our times!
