Manuel Castells and Historical Materialism

Abstract

Considering the very large volume of work produced by Castells, the relative scarcity of secondary literature discussing his theories is somewhat surprising. Castells does not really try to situate his theories about the network society in relation to Marxism. The argument of this paper is that Castells provides a plausible account of some major features of the means of production in the contemporary phase of capitalism, and also of the effects of this on society more generally. His theories could form the basis of an academically respectable version of historical materialism. Some problems with his theories are discussed.