The Information Technology Revolution is probably the most important force shaping communities today. While some of the key forces behind the IT revolution are universal, the impacts on any given community will be unique, depending on its individual make up, economic structure, attributes and responses. Technology proves us with the ability to create, process and store information. (Martin 1995, p 33)

It can also be said that the world is experiencing a 'third industrial revolution'. This revolution is total, effecting all aspects of our lives. It is a move from collective to individual. (Castells 2000, p 28-35)

According to Castells, we are currently experiencing an IT Revolution just as there was an Agricultural Revolution and an Industrial Revolution. He compares the two and then contrasts it by saying that the industrial revolution was slower and localised where as the IT revolution was faster and global. (Castells 2000, p30 )

There is a shift from industrialism (mass production) to informationalism (flexible production). Rather than companies producing in huge volumes, they are beginning to adopt techniq

ues, which customise products for individual need. In the westernised industrial world, Castells believes that producers have moved away from mass production to smaller volumes of individual needs. With the flexible forms of production in the west, mass production shifts to the less developed world. (Castells 2000, p166 & lec 3)

The major change that Castells finds is polarisation, around those who have IT skills and those who don't. There is a dualised social structure. They are polarised around those who are IT rich and those who are IT poor. It's clear that IT is causing a major shift in the job market. In recent decades, the relative growth of managerial and professional occupations has grown. Many analysts have noted that information technology is resulting in a more polarised occupational structure, consisting of highly skilled, well-paying jobs at one end and lower skilled, low-wage "McJobs" at the other -- and fewer jobs in between. The implications for residential areas and housing preferences are particularly important. (Castells 2000, p232-236)

Howard Rheingold believes that virtual communities are emerging. The Internet for example is bringing people together from many parts of the globe on a range of interests. (Castells 2000, p50)

A network society no longer rests upon fixed realities of time and place. Networks are clusters of relationships and may span indefinite ranges of time and space. (Castells, 2000)

A similar distribution of activities can also occur between autonomous companies linked together by outsourcing (i.e., the practice of acquiring goods and services from outside, specialist firms, rather than providing them internally) and strategic alliances -- trends enabled by reliable telecommunications linkages between companies and their supplier networks. (Martin 1995, p65-66)

Sennett, R, The Corrosion of Character; The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism, (Reading Handout)

According to Castells, the convergence of the digital revolution in informational technology and the re-invention of capitalism, into a vehicle for decentralisation, has made possible the development of a global, informational economy, which is a key feature of the network society. His is not the same as a world economy, and is a new reality. At its core it has strategically dominant activities which have the potential of working as a unit in real time on a planetary scale. (Castells 2000, p77)

Ownership structures also play a role here. Smaller, independently owned, single-establishment firms are more likely to be tied to a given community. As national and international companies take over various industries, a geographic redistribution of functions are expected to be seen over a wider area -regionally, nationally, or even on a global scale. (Castells, 2000)

The IT Revolution enabled a Network Society to emerge. The word "network" refers to any kind of functioning network- financial, supplier, producer, coalition etc., as well as the underlying electronic communications network.

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