Skip to content

Quotes from The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society — Manuel Castells

born 1942 Spain

← All quotes by Manuel Castells

28 quotes

The Internet is, above all else, a cultural creation.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

The Internet is a communication medium that allows for the first time, the communication of many to many, in chosen time, on a global scale.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Cultures are not made from free-floating values. They are rooted in institutions and organizations.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

"the Internet is the technological basis for the organizational form of the Information Age: the network."

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

The Internet is no longer a free realm, but neither has it fulfilled the Orwellian prophecy. It is a contested terrain, where the new, fundamental battle for freedom in the Information Age is being fought.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Literally everything is based on the capacity to attract, retain, and efficiently use talented workers.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Indeed, in 1999, over half the people on the planet had never made or received a telephone call, although this is changing fast.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Internet use enhanced sociability both at a distance and in the local community.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Societies change through conflict and are managed by politics.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

The Internet Culture is the culture of the creators of the Internet.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Realpolitik does not disappear in the Information Age. But it remains state-centric, in an era organized around networks, including networks of states.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Internet use is diffusing fast, but this diffusion follows a spatial pattern that fragments its geography according to wealth, technology, and power: it is the new geography of development.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

At its core, the new economy is based on culture: on the culture of innovation, on the culture of risk, and the culture of expectations, and, ultimately on the culture of hope in the future.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

The fundamental digital divide is no measured by the number of connections to the Internet, but by the consequences of both connection and lack of connection.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

If valuation in the financial markets provides the bottom line for the performance of the company, it is labor that remains the source of productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

As for the employees, the payment in stock options revives, somewhat ironically, the old anarchist ideology of self-management of the company, as they are co-owners, co-producers, and co-managers of the firm.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

John Chambers, Cisco's CEO and innovator, was, primarily, a salesman, and it shows.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Technological systems are socially produced. Social production is culturally informed. The Internet is no exception.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

The e-economy cannot function without workers able to navigate, both technically and in terms of content, this deep sea of information, organizing it, focusing it, and transforming it into specific knowledge, appropriate for the task and purpose of the work process.

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

"traditional media companies are not generating any profits from their Internet ventures."

The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Manuel Castells (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.