Manuel Castells 來過台灣 (80年代)四五本大著在台灣有翻譯本
Viewpoint: Manuel Castells on the rise of alternative economic cultures
Manuel Castells studies the links between the internet and protest movements
Prof
Manuel Castells is regarded as one of the most-cited sociologists in
the world. When most of us were still struggling to connect our modems
in the 1990s, the Spanish academic was documenting the rise of the
network society and studying the interaction between internet use,
counter-culture, urban protest movements and personal identity.
Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason interviewed Prof Castells in front of an audience at The London School of Economics for BBC Radio 4's Analysis about his latest book Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis. Prof Castells suggests we may be about to see the emergence of a new kind of capitalism, with businesses growing out of the counter-cultures of the last 20 years. Here are some extracts from their conversation.
The rise of new economic cultures
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Prof Manuel CastellsPeople are reversing the notion: what is important in their life cannot be bought, in most cases”
"When I mention this alternative economic culture, it's a combination of two things.
"A number of people have been doing this for quite a while
already because they don't agree with the meaninglessness of their
lives. Now there is something else - it's the legion of consumers who
cannot consume. "And, therefore, since they do not consume - they don't have the money, they don't have the credit, they don't have anything - then they try at least to make sense of their lives doing something different.
"So, it's because of needs and because of values - the two things together - that's why it's expanding."
Paul Mason: You write that economies are cultural - can you expand on that?
"If we want to work to make money, to consume, it's because we believe that by buying a new car or by buying a new television or a bigger flat, we are going to be happier. This is a particular form of culture.
"On the contrary... people are reversing the notion: what is important in their life cannot be bought, in most cases. But they don't have the choice anymore because they are already trapped in a machine.
"What happens when the machine is not working anymore? People say, 'well I am really stupid. I am running all the time for nonsense'."
Paul Mason: How big is this culture change?
"It is fundamental because it triggers a crisis of trust in the two big powers of our world: the political system and the financial system.
Occupy protests have made a mark in cities all over the world
"It's a dramatic crisis of trust and if there is no trust, there is no society.
"What we are not going to see is the economic collapse per se because societies cannot work in a social vacuum. If the economic institutions don't work, if the financial institutions don't work, the power relations that exist in society change the financial system in ways favoured to the financial system and it doesn't collapse. People collapse, not the financial system.
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During the crisis one third of Barcelona families lent money, without interest, to people who are not in their family”
Prof Manuel Castells
"The notion is the banks are
going to be alright, we are not going to be alright. So there is a
cultural change. A big one. Total distrust in the institutions of
finance and politics.
"Some people start already living differently as they can -
some because they want alternative ways of life, others because they
don't have any other choice. "What I refer to is about the observation of one of my latest studies on people who have decided not to wait for the revolution - to start living differently - meaning the expansion of what I call in a technical term 'non-capitalist practices'.
"They are economic practices but they don't have a for-profit motivation - such as barter networks; such as social currencies; co-operatives; self-management; agricultural networks; helping each other simply in terms of wanting to be together; networks of providing services for free to others in the expectation that someone will also provide to you. All this exists and it's expanding throughout the world."
Paul Mason: 97% of people you surveyed [in Catalonia] have engaged in non-capitalist economic activity.
"Well, it's about 30-40,000 who are engaged quite fully in alternative forms of life. And I differentiate between people who consciously organise their lives around alternative values, with people who live normal lives but at the same time they look in many, many aspects to live differently.
"For instance, during the crisis, one third of Barcelona families lent money, without interest, to people who are not in their family."
What is the Network Society?
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Prof Manuel CastellsAll the studies on the internet show that people who are more social on the internet are also more social face-to-face”
"It's a society where the main
activities in which people are engaged are organised fundamentally in
networks, rather than in vertical organisations.
"The difference is very simple - network technologies. It's
not the same thing to be constantly interactive at the speed of light
than just simply have a network of friends and people. "So all networks exist, but the connection between everything and everything - be it financial markets, politics, culture, media, communications, etc - that's new because of the new digital technologies."
Paul Mason: So we live in a network society. Could we reverse out of a network society?
"Can we reverse to a pre-electricity world? It's the same thing. No we can't.
"Although many people now are saying 'well why we don't start all over again?' It's a huge movement called the de-growth movement. Some people would try to go to different forms of communal organisation, etc.
Prof Castells says it is impossible to reverse the trend of the networked society
"We live in a culture of not virtual reality, but real virtuality because our virtuality - meaning the internet networks - are a fundamental part of our reality.
"All the studies on the internet show that people who are more social on the internet are also more social face-to-face."
Paul Mason: You have these diverse groups, they protest against subject A today, and subject B tomorrow, and they play World of Warcraft at night - but they're not going to achieve what Castro and Guevara achieved, are they?
"The impact on the political institutions is almost negligible because the political institutions are impervious to change. But if you look at what's happening in terms of the consciousness... you have things like the huge debate of social inequality that didn't exist three years ago.
Find out more
Listen to the full interview with Manuel Castells on the Radio 4 website or via the Analysis download.
"In terms of demonstrating, the
system is much stronger than the embryos of the movement... you reach
the minds of the people through a process of communication, and this
process of communication is today fundamentally through the internet and
debating.
"It's a long process from the minds of the people to the
institutions of society. Let's take an historical example: toward the
end of the 19th Century in Europe, there were basically the
Conservatives and the Liberals, right and left. "But then something happened - industrialisation, working class movements, new ideologies and new movements started. All this was not in the political system. It took 20 to 30 years, then you have the socialists and then the split from the socialists... and the liberals disappear basically.
"It will change politics, but not through organised forms of politics in the same way. Why? Because networks are different and networks don't need hierarchical organisations."
Where will it end?
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Prof Manuel CastellsWith this climate what happens is that more and more our societies will become ungovernable and, therefore, we can have all kinds of phenomenon - some of them very dangerous”
"All this together is not going
to be a great electoral coalition, is not going to be any new party, any
new anything. It's simply society against the state and against the
financial institutions - not against capitalism, by the way - against financial institutions, which is different.
"With this climate what happens is that more and more our
societies will become ungovernable and, therefore, we can have all kinds
of phenomenon - some of them very dangerous. "Of course we'll see many expressions of alternative forms of politics which will escape the mainstream traditional political institutions, and some of them, of course, going back and trying to have a nationalistic, primitive community to attack everybody and to ultimately build a commune cut off from the world and oppress their own people.
"But what happens in any process of disorganised, chaotic social change, there are all these phenomena co-existing and the way they play out, one against the other, will depend ultimately if the political institutions open up enough channels of participation for the energy that exists in society for change that could overcome the resistance of the dark forces that exist in all societies."
Paul Mason interviewed Prof Manuel Castells for BBC Radio 4's Analysis. You can hear the full interview via the Radio 4 website or via the Analysis download.
此文http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20027044 的摘譯可參考破報
http://www.pots.tw/node/11259
節譯/曾芷筠
「他們不消費（因為沒有錢和信用卡），所以他們至少開始試圖理解，生命有何意義？要如何有所改變？」
——Manuel Castells
西班牙學者Manuel Castells是世界上論文被引用最多次的社會學家之一。1990年代開始他就已經在思考網路社會的崛起，並研究網際網路使用、反對文化、城市抗爭運動 和個人身份認同之間的關連。他為新書《餘波盪漾：經濟危機文化》接受專訪時表示，跟著過去20年來的反對文化（counter-cultures）的成 長，我們可能即將見證一種新的資本主義出現。
過去人們工作賺錢、消費，是因為相信透過買新車、新房會變得更快樂。但如果這個機制不再運作，會發生什麼呢？由於對政治和金融體系的信任危機，人們 不再信任銀行和政治人物。Castells認為我們即將看到的並不是經濟本身的瓦解，瓦解的是人。銀行會沒事，人不會，文化上就會形成巨大變革。
根據Castells的觀察，有些人已經決定不等待革命，開始過著盡可能不一樣的生活，部份是因為想找到替代的人生方式，有些則因為沒有其他選擇。 這便是他所說的「非資本主義實踐」的擴大：人們進行經濟行為，但沒有營利的動機，例如以物易物的網絡、社會貨幣、共同合作、自我管理、農民社群、純粹因為 共存而互助；因為期待別人也會幫助自己，免費提供服務的網絡得以形成。全球有3至4萬人比較完全浸淫在這種另類人生中，特別是自覺地圍繞著另類價值組織生 活的人。例如在經濟危機中，有三分之一的巴塞隆納家庭在沒有營利的情況下借貸金錢給非親屬。
Castells認為網絡社會裡，人與人之間的關係是從根本上結合，而非垂直關係。這是一種被稱為「解成長」（de-growth）的大型運動，有 些人會試圖發展不同形式的公社組織，有趣的是組織、辯論、動員解成長和地方自治必須要使用網路。我們活在真實的虛擬（意指網路）中，這是現實基礎的一部 份。雖難以造成政治體制的衝擊，但對意識層面的影響甚巨
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