The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

32 The Network Society
The selective inclusion to which Castells (2003) refers when analyzing
the space of flows is a perceptible reality in the case of the relation established
between Catalonia and Spain or Lombardy and Italy (IMD 2004)
or between the Greater Buenos Aires area and Argentina (Amadeo 2005).
The more populous countries apparently seem to be incapable of
effecting, or prefer not to effect, this transition to information and
network societies for the whole of their territory and population, at
least in this phase of history.
The similarity between the countries listed above is confirmed by
other international indices such as that of the ITU (International
Telecommunications Union), the DAI (2003). Namely, because the
DAI (Digital Access Index) establishes identification categories, such
as: infrastructure (relating to telephone lines, mobile phone and
Internet subscriptions), cost (Internet access and use prices in comparison
to the national income); knowledge (literacy and inclusion in the
education system); quality (international bandwidth and broadband
subscribers) and utilization of the Internet.
If we compare these categories in the leading countries (such as
Finland, USA and Singapore) and the societies defined as transition
societies, we see that it is not only the low levels of technology utilization
in the latter that makes the difference. Indeed, in recent years we
have come to understand that studies carried out by those involved in
the technological processes themselves, such as the telecommunications
operators, are beginning to accept that the communication infrastructure
is not the only element that can explain the differences
between countries and that income and education also play a very
important role (ITU 2003). Only if we look at society in an integrated
manner—taking into account the infrastructure, production and
knowledge (Castells and Himanen, 2001)—can we identify the transition
processes in progress in contemporary societies.
The analysis of international comparisons in the technological
domain reveals an apparently converging reality amongst the different
societies analyzed here. They all present figures for machines connected
to the Internet that are approximately one quarter of the average
for the advanced economies and also one third of the high
technology exports achieved by the advanced economies (with the
exception of Poland, Uruguay and Argentina), presenting, finally,