Castells' analysis of the rise of a global network society and information age is underpinned, pa... more Castells' analysis of the rise of a global network society and information age is underpinned, paradoxically, by a nationalist vision with organic links in a Gramscian sense to Catalan nationalism. This leads to various weaknesses in his theory, especially an over-emphasis on language and nation at the expense of class. Exploring the specifically Catalan origins of his work, and testing its adequacy there, helps us to understand Castells' broader approach. Discussion of Castells has perhaps overlooked his commitment to nationalism because the sociology of identity sometimes unwittingly adopts what Billig has called a banal nationalist perspective. A stricter distinction between the different meanings of the term identity would help sociology to avoid arguments, such as that of Castells, that risk becoming determinist, teleological or both. The article concludes by asking whether the 'sociological imagination' has been alert enough to its banal nationalist form, facilitated by its intimate relationship with the state, its concern for policy relevance and methods of data gathering.
ABSTRACT Despite high unemployment, a collapse in manufacturing output and employment, a governme... more ABSTRACT Despite high unemployment, a collapse in manufacturing output and employment, a government-engineered fall in international competitiveness that has resulted in an unprecedented deficit in non-oil trade and zero net growth in the Gross Domestic Product between 1979-83, the basic features of British workplace industrial relations remain unchanged. The economic changes wrought by the recession since 1979 in Scotland and the UK and the resurgence of older traditions in industrial relations are described.
Castells' analysis of the rise of a global network society and information age is underpinned, pa... more Castells' analysis of the rise of a global network society and information age is underpinned, paradoxically, by a nationalist vision with organic links in a Gramscian sense to Catalan nationalism. This leads to various weaknesses in his theory, especially an over-emphasis on language and nation at the expense of class. Exploring the specifically Catalan origins of his work, and testing its adequacy there, helps us to understand Castells' broader approach. Discussion of Castells has perhaps overlooked his commitment to nationalism because the sociology of identity sometimes unwittingly adopts what Billig has called a banal nationalist perspective. A stricter distinction between the different meanings of the term identity would help sociology to avoid arguments, such as that of Castells, that risk becoming determinist, teleological or both. The article concludes by asking whether the 'sociological imagination' has been alert enough to its banal nationalist form, facilitated by its intimate relationship with the state, its concern for policy relevance and methods of data gathering.
ABSTRACT Despite high unemployment, a collapse in manufacturing output and employment, a governme... more ABSTRACT Despite high unemployment, a collapse in manufacturing output and employment, a government-engineered fall in international competitiveness that has resulted in an unprecedented deficit in non-oil trade and zero net growth in the Gross Domestic Product between 1979-83, the basic features of British workplace industrial relations remain unchanged. The economic changes wrought by the recession since 1979 in Scotland and the UK and the resurgence of older traditions in industrial relations are described.
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Papers by John Macinnes