A New Society
Except for a few stubborn academic econo-mists, there is widespread consensus that we have entered a new economy. I contend we are also living in a new society, of which the new economy is only one component. Since this society will unfold, throughout the world, during the twenty-first century, the survival of sociolo-gy as a meaningful activity depends on its renew-al, in accordance with the new phenomena to be studied and the new analytical issues to be tack-led. But what is this new society? Since the focus of this article is on sociology, not society, I have no option but to be schematic and declarative, rather than analytical, taking the liberty to refer the reader to my trilogy on the matter (Castells [1996] 2000a). Here are, in my view, the main dimensions of social change that, together and in their interaction, constitute a new social structure, underlying the "new society.