ABSTRACT
Networks did not have to wait for microelectronics to be a decisive tool in organizing production, trade, power and communication. So, what is fundamentally new about the Information Age is the kind of information and communication technologies that sprung up from the microelectronics revolution that developed from 1947 onwards, to constitute a new technological paradigm in the 1970s. These technologies enabled networks to deal with size, complexity, and speed in a way that was qualitatively superior to anything experienced in earlier times. The characteristics of informationalism as a new technological paradigm shape and affect the conditions under which networks operate, thus specifying networks of the Information Age in reference to their predecessors in history. There are two strategically crucial networks in conflict in our world: the key institutional arrangement of capitalism and global financial markets and the social movements proposing a more humane form of globalization or fighting against market-driven globalization, trying to organize societies around different values.
