This final volume in Manuel Castells' trilogy, with a substantial new preface, is devoted to processes of global social change induced by the transition from the old industrial society to the emerging global network society.

• Explains why China, rather than Japan, is the economic and political actor that is revolutionizing the global system
• Reflects on the contradictions of European unification, proposing the concept of the network state
• Substantial new preface assesses the validity of the theoretical construction presented in the conclusion of the trilogy, proposing some conceptual modifications in light of the observed experience