AGM31: The Information Age Economy, Society, and Culture

Really interesting book from the course reading list: Manuel Castells, 2010, The rise of the network society. – 2nd ed., Wiley (Chichester, West Sussex). Castells is mostly looking at the way the economy, society and culture interact with each other, but he also has some analysis of the way the Internet may be used by artists and the creative industries, especially the growth of freelance work on the internet in the creative industries. He says that small business and innovation continue to thrive on the margins of the big business sectors of the economy, increasing the numbers of self-employed as technology allows self-reliance in knowledge-based services.