Manuel Castells is one of the world's leading thinkers on the new information age, hailed by The Economist as "the first significant philosopher of cyberspace," and by Christian Science Monitor as "a pioneer who has hacked out a logical, well-documented, and coherent picture of early 21st century civilization, even as it rockets forward largely in a blur." Now, in The Internet Galaxy, this brilliantly insightful writer speculates on how the Internet will change our lives.

Castells believes that we are "entering, full speed, the Internet Galaxy, in the midst of informed bewilderment." His aim in this exciting and profound work is to help us to understand how the Internet came into being, and how it is affecting every area of human life--from work, politics, planning and development, media, and privacy, to our social interaction and life in the home. We are at ground zero of the new network society. In this book, its major commentator reveals the Internet's huge capacity to liberate, but also its ability to marginalize and exclude those who do not have access to it. Castells provides no glib solutions, but asks us all to take responsibility for the future of this new information age.

The Internet is becoming the essential communication and information medium in our society, and stands alongside electricity and the printing press as one of the greatest innovations of all time. The Internet Galaxy offers an illuminating look at how this new technology will influence business, the economy, and our daily lives.

"Absorbing history....Castells observes that while the Internet has the potential to strengthen democracy through broadening the sources of information and enabling greater citizenship participation, it has at the same time contributed greatly to the politics of scandal....In his sobering final chapter, the author studies the divide between peoples and regions that operate in the digital world and those that cannot." Kirkus Reviews

"An excellent, readable, nontechnical summary of the history, social implications and likely future of Internet business." Publishers Weekly

"Thoroughly researched...[and] truly global in scope. Castells provides balanced coverage of e-business and the new economy; the politics of the Internet, including privacy and freedom; and the geography of the Internet." Library Journal

Manuel Castells is Professor of Planning and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has also been a visiting professor in fifteen universities in Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America and has published twenty-one books, including the acclaimed trilogy The Information

' Introduction

1. Lessons from the History of the Internet

2. The Internet Culture

3. E-business and the New Economy

4. Virtual Communities or Network Society?

5. The Politics of the Internet (I): Computer Networks, Civil Society, and the State

6. The Politics of the Internet (II): Privacy and Liberty in Cyberspace

7. Multimedia and the Internet: The Hypertext beyond Convergence

8. The Geography of the Internet: Networked Places

9. The Digital Divide in Global Perspective

10. Conclusion: The Challenges of the Network Society

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