Summary: The term Network Society was coined in Dutch by Jan van Dijk in his book De Netwerkmaatschappij (1991) (The Network Society) (1999, 2006), and by Manuel Castells in The Network Society, the first part of his trilogy The Information Age (1996). In 1978 James Martin used the related term ‘The Wired Society’ indicating a society that is connected by mass- and telecommunication networks. Barry Wellman and the team of Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff also have done work on the concept of network society.

Van Dijk defines the network society as a society in which a combination of social and media networks shapes its prime mode of organization and most important structures at all levels (individual, organizational and societal). He compares this type of society to a mass society that is shaped by groups, organizations and communities (‘masses’) organized in physical co-presence.

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Optional: The Information Age

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