Friday, November 14, 2008

The prescience of Manuel Castells: 2009 going on 1999

I've always been a fan of subverting conventions. Toronto's iconic CityTV, under the cool leadership of Moses Znaimer, started a lot of interesting broadcasting innovations - the "busy newsroom as background set for news anchors", street level broadcasting studios, Mark Daley's sarcastic voiceover promotions for City programming and, of course, Ed the Sock. Does it get any better than an angry, cigar-chomping sock tearing a strip out of an unknowing ingenue or a lacerating commentary on another ephemeral part of pop cultural detritus? (Editor's note: Aren't all parts of pop culture both "ephemeral" and "detritus"?!? Writer's note: Cynic!)

One show I liked watching was repeats of old CityTV News. Basically it was a late night show in the mid-2000s that rebroadcast the 6 p.m. evening news from the 1980s. Watching Daley with a huge afro and 70s style glasses and Jo Jo Chinto roaming the city beat was strangely captivating at 4 in the morning.


I have been reading Manuel Castells' "The social implications of Information and Communication Technologies". Although it is more of a "state of the union" style report than analytical think piece, it is still superb. One of the best things I have read this year. Castells has a real ability to concisely report the dynamic nature of the internet while making remarkably sage forecasts of the coming storm. It was written in 1999 and obviously a lot of ground has been covered since that time. But what it does so well is take the then current state of the offline world, add the decentering effects of the online as well as ICTs (information and communication technologies) and stir in a little prudent foresight. Tah dah!

Take education. Similar to today, there is quite a diverse range of ICT penetration in learning environments. But what is still the issue is not so much the availability of these technologies but the context. Without a transformed environment that is capable of supporting these ventures as well as a trained and knowledgeable staff, ICT interventions may in fact cause more chaos in schools.

What puzzles me most in the context of education is how painfully accurate these words are today. Somehow, although close to ten years has passed since this report was completed, we are essentially in the same situation in many jurisdictions.

Investment in education reminds me of investment in municipal transportation. In transportation, there just seems to be a perpetual inclination to invest in the most "sexy" thing possible - capital projects like new subway lines, light railroad lines, subways cars, buses, etc. What gets perpetually left behind are operating expenses like maintenance, wages, fuel costs, etc. "Sure you can have this brand spanking new transportation line but good luck affording to run it!"

The same thing happens with schools. New schools are great. So are new computers. States, provinces, foundations love funding these kinds of capital-based projects. But allocating significant amounts of money to banal things like training just doesn't cut it. As a result, schools have the computers but not the human resource infrastructure. Same problem, later date.

Overall, I found Castells incredibly concise about the current state of affairs in 1999 as well as his short-term predictions. I just hope we progress enough so that these short-term prognostications don't turn out, due to neglect, indifference, etc., into long-term ones.

References:
Castells, M. (1999) The social implications of Information and Communication Technologies. In The world social science report (236-245). Paris: UNESCO.

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