The Age of Rhizomatic Revolutions

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!