CASTELLS, Manuel. "The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global
Governance".The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 616, No. 1,
2008, pp. 78-93.
Abstract
The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and
are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is
the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between
government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of
society. The process of globalization has shifted the debate from the national domain to the global
debate, prompting the emergence of a global civil society and of ad hoc forms of global governance.
Accordingly, the public sphere as the space of debate on public affairs has also shifted from the
national to the global and is increasingly constructed around global communication networks. Public
diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public
sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation
of power relationships by building on shared cultural meaning, the essence of communication.
CASTELLS, Manuel. "Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society". International
Journal of Communication, Vol. 1, 2007, pp. 238-266.
The latter also available along with various other resources on his web site:
http://www.manuelcastells.info/en/index.htm