“No one has influenced my thinking more over the past decade than sociologist and planner Manuel Castells. We are fortunate that he has just moved to Los Angeles, where he now holds the new Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the USC Annenberg School of Communication. Manuel’s magisterial, compulsively readable three-volume study, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, was hailed by Anthony Giddens as ‘the most compelling attempt yet to map the contours of the global information age.’ On the occasion of the publication of a new edition that brings our understanding of fundamentalisms up to date, Manuel talks with us about the global forces reshaping our world. My experience is that, having enjoyed his insights, you will never read the newspaper in the same way again.”
—CalArts President Steven Lavine