ABSTRACT
The opposing dialectical moving forces of the Net and the Self in Castells' formulation creates an almost infinite series of interactions impacting on both micro and macro levels of society. Castells is certainly not the first to posit this relationship between social relations and technology but he is the first to introduce the idea that global information and communication technology, combined with individual user control, has effected such far-reaching changes in modern society. For Castells, however, the definer of the Self, identity, is not culturally prearranged. Rather, as the introduction to this section made clear, it is constructed on the basis of attributes selected by social actors and the motives for constructing identities determine their content. Constructions of Castells' three types of identity, legitimizing identity, that of powerful institutions, project identity, that of social reformers, and resistance identity, that of subjugated people, are all dependent to some extent on the past, and social explanations of the past (Castells 1997; Scham 2001).
