ABSTRACT
The Information Technology Revolution did not create the network society. But without information technology, the Network Society would not exist. It is an economy in which sources of productivity and competitiveness for firms, regions, countries depend, more than ever, on knowledge, information, and the technology of their processing, including the technology of management, and the management of technology. Most economic activity in the world and most employment are not only national but regional or local. At the heart of the connectivity of the global economy and of the flexibility of informational capitalism, there is a new form of organization, characteristic of economic activity, but gradually extending its logic to other domains and organizations: the network enterprise. The processes of globalization, business networking, and individualization of labour weaken social organizations and institutions that represented/protected workers in the Information Age, particularly labour unions and the welfare state.
