E-way: Review Article on The Information Age by Manual Castells

Castells’ celebrated three-volume work presents a wealth of new insights and perspectives.  However, it is vastly overwritten; it often uses metaphors instead of clear-cut arguments; and the author, a frustrated Marxist, most of the time seems to be reluctant to speak in his own voice.  Besides offering a general survey of the book, Kristóf Nyíri attempts to provide an archaeology of Castells’ famous phrase “space of flows.”  The survey concludes by emphasizing that Castells’ analysis on nations and nationalisms constitute a major topic which was absent from his earlier work.