Manuel Castells

(b.1942 in Spain) is currently professor of sociology and professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He studied law and economics at the University of Barcelona in 1958-62 and was a student activist against Franco’s dictatorship, escape to Paris as political refugee. He graduated from the Sorbonne’s Faculty of Law and Economics in 1964. PhD in Sociology from the University of Paris in 1967. He holds a Doctorat d’Etat in Human Sciences from the Sorbonne, and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Madrid.

Numerous publications, the first book in 1972 La Question Urbaine. Intellectual founder of what came to be known as the New Urban Sociology. His main publications in this field are The City and the Grassroots (University of California Press), a comparative study of urban social movements and community organizations based on his field work in France, Spain, Latin America, and California, that received the C. Wright Mills Award in 1983. Further studies include The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture (Blackwell): 1st volume, The Rise of the Network Society (1996, revised edition 2000); 2nd volume, The Power of Identity (1997); 3rd volume, End of Millennium (1998, revised edition 2000).

Appointment to the European Academy in 1994; member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on the Information Society in 1995-97. Adviser to UNESCO, International Labour Office, United Nations Development Program, US Agency for International Development, European Commission, Government of Chile (Allende administration), Government of Mexico, Government of France, Government of Ecuador, State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Government of the Russian Federation, Government of Brazil, Government of Portugal, and Government of Spain.