Manuel Castells is one of the world's best-known social scientists. His work is often compared, in scope and ambition, with that of Marx or Weber. Renowned for his trilogy The Information Age, he has published widely on technology and innovation, including the Internet, planning and urban issues, identity, social movements and international business and politics.

Here Castells explains and expands his work in a series of conversations with British journalist Martin Ince. He builds on his earlier work, opening it to new audiences and taking it into new areas in a highly accessible way.

These conversations include new thinking on social organizations and identity, new areas of innovation, including education, knowledge and culture, and his analysis of such areas of the world as Africa, Russia, Europe, North and South America and Asia of which Castells has specialist knowledge. The book also contains a detailed biography of Castells and a bibliography of his voluminous scholarly work.