Reconceptualizing Development in the Global Information Age

Manuel Castells is University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is also Professor Emeritus of Sociology and of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, as well as Director of Research in the Department of Sociology, and Fellow of St. John's College, University of Cambridge. He has been Professor and Director of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona. He has published 26 books, including the trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (Blackwell 1996-2003) and Communication Power (Oxford University Press 2009). He received the 2011 Erasmus Medal from Academia Europaea, the 2012 Holberg Memorial Prize from the Parliament of Norway, and the 2013 Balzan Prize from the Balzan Foundation. Pekka Himanen is Professor at Aalto University in Helsinki and a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley. His books include The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age (2001) and The Information Society and the Welfare State (co-authored with Manuel Castells, OUP 2002). Himanen's work has been recognized with several awards, such as the World Economic Forum's respected Global Leader for Tomorrow Award in 2003 and his appointment by the WEF as a Young Global Leader in 2005. Himanen has advised leading global organizations and corporations from the United Nations to Silicon Valley companies, and is also a co-founder of the Global Dignity initiative.