[ICTs-and-Society] Some reflections on Manuel Castells book "Networks of outrage and hope. Social movements in the Internet age"

[Christian Fuchs]

Maybe this is of interest for some on this list. -- CF

Fuchs, Christian. 2012. Some reflections on Manuel Castells’ book 
“Networks of outrage and hope. Social movements in the Internet age“. 
tripleC - Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information 
Society 10 (2): 775-797.
http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/459

Abstract: This paper provides critical reflections on Manuel Castells’ 
(2012) book Networks of Outrage and Hope. Social Movements in the 
Internet Age that analyses the “nature and perspectives of networked 
social movements” (p. 4) and gives special focus to the role of “social 
media” in movements that emerged in 2011 in Tunisia, Iceland, Egypt, 
Spain and the United States. I situate Castells’ book in an intellectual 
discourse that focuses on the political implications of social media and 
that has involved Clay Shirky, Malcom Gladwell and Evgeny Morozov. The 
article also discusses the role of social theory and empirical research 
in Castells’ book, presents as an alternative a theoretical model of the 
relationship between social movements and the media, discusses the 
implications that some empirical data that focus on social media in the 
Egyptian revolution and the Occupy Wall Street movement have for 
Castells’ approach, discusses how Castells positions himself towards 
capitalism and compares his explanation of the crisis and his political 
views to David Harvey’s approach.
Keywords: social movements, social media, Internet, protest, revolution, 
occupation, Arab spring, 15-M, indignadas, indignados, Occupy Wall 
Street, Manuel Castells, network, Networks of outrage and hope. Social 
movements in the Internet age.

Section overview:
1. Introduction
2. Social Media and Politics: A Controversy between Clay Shirky, Malcom 
Gladwell and Evgeny Morozov
3. Castells on Social Media in the Context of Protests and Revolutions: 
The Dimension of Social Theory
4. Social Theory Recovered: A Model of the Relationship between Social 
Movements and the Media
5. Castells on Social Media in the Context of Protests and Revolutions: 
The Dimension of Empirical Research
6. Manuel Castells and David Harvey: The Question of Political Struggle 
- For or against Capitalism?
7. Conclusion

-- 
Prof. Christian Fuchs
Chair in Media and Communication Studies
Department of Informatics and Media
Uppsala University
KyrkogŒrdsgatan 10
Box 513
751 20 Uppsala
Sweden
christian.fuchs at im.uu.se
Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019
http://fuchs.uti.at
http://www.im.uu.se
NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog
Editor of tripleC: http://www.triple-c.se
Chair of ESA Research Network 18-Sociology of Communications and Media 
Research
ICTs and Society Network: http://www.icts-and-society.net