Manuel Castells

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Castells and the second or maternal family name is Oliván.
The Most Excellent
Manuel Castells
Castells in 2020
Minister of Universities
In office
13 January 2020 – 20 December 2021
MonarchFelipe VI
Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez
Preceded byPedro Duque (Universities)
Succeeded byJoan Subirats
Personal details
Born (1942-02-09) 9 February 1942 (age 82)
Hellín, Albacete, Spain
SpouseEmma Kiselyova[1]
Parents
  • Fernando Castells Adriaensens (father)
  • Josefina Olivan Escartin (mother)
Alma materUniversity of Paris
Known forResearch on the information society, communication and globalization
Organization theory
Network society
Websitewww.manuelcastells.info/en
Scientific career
FieldsSociology, urban planning, communication studies
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge; University of Southern California; Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia); EHESS; University of Paris X: Nanterre
Doctoral studentsAnanya Roy
Sasha Costanza-Chock
Other notable studentsDaniel Cohn-Bendit

Manuel Castells Oliván (Catalan: [kəsˈteʎs]; born 9 February 1942) is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society, communication and globalization.

Castells is the Full Professor of Sociology, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in Barcelona. He is also the University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Additionally, he is the Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 24 years. He is also a fellow of St. John's College at the University of Cambridge and holds the chair of Network Society at Collège d’Études Mondiales, Paris.

The 2000–2014 research survey of the Social Sciences Citation Index ranks him as the world's fifth most-cited social science scholar, and the foremost-cited communication scholar.[2]

In 2012, Castells was awarded the Holberg Prize,[3] for having "shaped our understanding of the political dynamics of urban and global economies in the network society."[4] In 2013, he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Sociology for "his wide-ranging and imaginative thinking through of the implications of the great technological changes of our time."[5]

In January 2020, he was appointed Minister of Universities in the Sánchez II Government of Spain,[6] position he held until his resignation in December 2021.[7]

  1. ^ Rantanen, Terhi (2005). "The Message is the Medium". Global Media and Communication. 1 (2): 136. doi:10.1177/1742766505054629. S2CID 141501784.
  2. ^ "Relative Ranking of a Selected Pool of Leading Scholars in the Social Sciences by Number of Citations in the Social Science Citation Index, 2000–2014" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Manuel Castells mottok Holbergprisen for 2012". Regjeringen.no. 6 June 2012.
  4. ^ "Manuel Castells". holbergprisen.no. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  5. ^ "Balzan Prize for Sociology". International Balzan Prize Foundation. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Real Decreto 3/2020, de 12 de enero, sobre las Vicepresidencias del Gobierno" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish) (11). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado: 2877. 13 January 2020. ISSN 0212-033X.
  7. ^ Galaup, Irene Castro, Laura (16 December 2021). "Joan Subirats sustituirá a Manuel Castells como ministro de Universidades". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 December 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)