Conversations with History: Manuel Castells

[andrescarceller]

Grande Manuel Castells

[scanudas]

Between minute 26 and 30 (4 minutes) Castells talks about wars.

- Public Opinion is against wars.

- No one thinks Iraq is a real threat for western world.

- Throught technology you try to finish wars in days.

We are at 2011 and USA still at Afganistan and Iraq.

It seems that technology is not enough to finish wars in days.

[cejasromanelli]

He began the University at the age of 16... OMG!!!

[MarcianitoRajoy]

USE LINUX

[cospaa]

crazy soundtrack!

[alanmullery]

fucking hell, what a boring old cunt!

[kopperify]

@alanmullery - it helps if you play Strobe from Deadmau5 quietly in the back ground, then Castells words are dramatised, and they become sensational

[BunnyHunter2]

I like Castells vision on the impact of the information age on war, I came across Jean Baudrillard's vision where he states that since the cold war the most dangerous wars are not the war itself but the threat of war. "the balance of terror is the terror of balance" p. 33 - Simulacra and simulation

And I have been thinking about how it looks now and how it will look like when the digital information age gets more and more mature.

[1888junkteam]

excellent worker!

[Necromanceress]

Castells, your book (The Internet Galaxy) in portuguese is really hard and boring to read! The one who translated it did a great evil with your text!!! But I admire your work very much - please, order a new etition in portuguese.

[reilly911]

He's a beast! Whoop

[yusook5]

I am a big fan of him

[EstrellaAzul1983]

Me too!

[j4ck2234]

+If you google 'Austrian vs. Neoclassical Analytics Murphy' you can find a pretty good lecture on the subject. (on the Mises Institute webpage)

[j4ck2234]

Cisco systems failed so serve their customers that's why they have been punished. Companies have no power, they're our servants.

Only when you give them a vehicle like a government, in which you can basically transform money into power - then these otherwise powerless servants become the (soulless) rulers, and dangerous. That's the problem, not free people trading with each other. Damn socialists. -.-

[figocooldude]

I believe you have a poor understanding of what power is.

[j4ck2234]

There are many definitions right? I call power in that case the legitimized ability to violate my rights as a free person.

[j4ck2234]

Btw when he complains that politicians do not have full controll over capital allocation he means that it's sad that we don't have world communism. Yeah, boohoo.

+weird that he thinks that money flows around by ('uncontrollable' 'turbulent') chance rather than beeing invested by rational human beings in the most profitable ways. (which means most effective)

[figocooldude]

rational human beings hahaha

[j4ck2234]

lol not in that sense. I'm talking about the fundamental aspect of human action - the incentive to improve your current situation.

When you think that a money investement might improve your situation you will invest it in the most profitable way you can think of - which is in a free market also the most productive way.

[figocooldude]

Well I was actually laughing at the neoclassical concept of a rational being.

[j4ck2234]

Neoclassical? 'Praxeological' would be the word. The neoclassical analyses of pretty much anything is more esoteric than scientific. They come up with ideas that are not accessible by people who don't get paid for it with magic make-belief dollars. ;)

[j4ck2234]

What i wrote was that human acts because he want's to improve his situation. That's why we get out of the bed in the first place right, because we prefer in that moment standing up over not doing that, otherwise it wouldn't happen.

[figocooldude]

"Man does not strive after happiness; only the Englishman does that"- Nietzsche

There is no human nature, sure, at our present time the majority are englishmen, but there are still people that, like other times, don't strive for improving their situation, but for other thing, like glory in greek, roman and medieval times, even if they had to suffer and even die. We may do acts because we prefer them, but doesn't mean because we want a better situation.

[j4ck2234]

Nah you misunderstand what I'm saying. Human acts in way A because he prefers it to current situation B. It does not matter if A means pulling your eyeballs out and eating them and B relaxing in a whirlpool.

[j4ck2234]

"Let us consider some of the immediate implications of the action

axiom. Action implies that the individual's behavior is purposive, in

short, that it is directed toward goals. Furthermore, the fact of his action

implies that he has consciously chosen certain means to reach his goals. Since he wishes to attain these goals, they must be valuable to him;

accordingly he must have values that govern his choices.

[j4ck2234]

That he

employs means implies that he believes he has the technological

knowledge that certain means will achieve his desired ends. Let us note

that praxeology does not assume that a person's choice of values or goals

is wise or proper or that he has chosen the technologically correct

method of reaching them. All that praxeology asserts is that the

individual actor adopts goals and believes, whether erroneously or

correctly, that he can arrive at them by the employment of certain means."

[j4ck2234]

~Murray Rothbard, Praxeology

[j4ck2234]

You see that this significantly differs from the neoclassical perspective. Praxeology tells us that it is actually not possible to come up with scientific models for the economy by empirical testing, simply because it's foundation is ultimately human behaviour.

[j4ck2234]

Politics changes the game, it makes more sense for businessmen to support crazy intellectuals and politicians who are not bound by the limits of reality. You know for you it may not make sense to pay 3 times the price for sugar than the rest of the world, but for politicians, unions and american sugar producers it makes a lot of sense.

[j4ck2234]

I think that dude is wrong about pretty much everything.

[ekourl]

I've followed Castells' thinking from the time of "the urban question" till his recent work on IT, and I consider it path-breaking in the way we understand the world we live in.

[8data]

He innovated dramatically in the concept of FLOWS

which is still the best construct for sociology, urban development, planning, regional planning

hes a legend in academia, David Harvey also great

Geographers, hes a great figure of 20th century constructs for the lay reader and for anyone who wants to understand how identity continues to be the most important part of life

[miroma]

I like Castells' stuff on IT and cities and found this pretty interesting. While it's quite long, and his accent is pretty heavy, this is still a good listen.

[8data]

its better if youve read and analyzed his synthesis, which I first I thought was simple, but its deep and a serious manual for anyone who believes that Sociology is not just an easy grade but a serious subject of study and thought

not everything is data but the self and net is still a dramatic way of seeing all the stuff and FLOWS

anyways hes at USC now whatever that means

[samdonuge]

i'm a double major in sociology and political science. i consider myself an interdisciplinarian. comparatively, sociology is the most beautiful discipline among the social sciences. Very broad, but also allows for in-depth analysis.

[defdeezy]

linguistics bitch

[martingrannholmen]

lol???

[RobSSBB]

@samdonuge I am a BA undergraduate studying sociology and can relate to what you say. You can study and incorporate sophisticated philosophical or mathematical developments via economics in how our world is shaped, to the "mundane" study of interactions of everyday life between specific individuals and then even combine these together.

It is interdisciplinary in its very nature and can cover virtually anything. This is the first time I have hear of Castells and his theory, but I like it.

[7LucidDreamZ]

It's nice to see some thought-provoking and challenging content available on YouTube.

Thank you UC for this contribution.