Defining the informational society

Castells is clear in his identification of a post-industrial paradigm for social development, and of it being a clear break from industrialism:

"In the industrial mode of development, the main source of productivity lies in the introduction of new energy sources, and in the ability to decentralize the use of energy throughout the production and circulation processes. in the new, informational mode of development the source of productivity lies in the technology of knowledge generation, information processing, and symbol communication.....

Although technology and technical relationships of production are organized in paradigms originating in the dominant sphers of society (for example, the production process, the military-industrial complex) they diffuse throughout the whole set of social relationships and social structures, so penetrating and modifying power and experience. Because informationalism is based on the technology of knowledge and information, there is an especially close linkage between culture and productive forces, between spirit and matter, in the informational mode of development. It follows that we should expect the emergence of historically new forms of social interaction, social control, and social change."

Castells, The rise of the network society, 2000, pp16-18

This society has different flavours (p20) but the commonalities are strong;

"the core processes of knowledge generation, economic productivity, political/military power, and media communication are already deeply transformed by the informational paradigm, and are connected to global networks of wealth, power, and symbols working under such a logic. Thus, all societies are affected by capitalism and informationalism, and many societies (certainly all major societies) are already informational, although of different kinds, in different settings, and with specific cultural/institutional expressions."