I was fortunate to be able to attend a lecture on campus today, given by Manuel Castells, the renowned sociologist and one of the foremost scholars of communication in the information age. His talk was inspirational and quite personal, dealing with his own journey which was a treat, since apparently he rarely talks about much of his personal life.
There were a few ideas he mentioned that really struck me. The first was his comment that ever since he was quite young, he had wanted two main things from the “project” of his life; to be free, and to understand the world better in order to change it. He went on to explain how he reasoned that the breathing room required to achieve these things could be found in academia. He also commented that his students always come first, that they constantly challenge him, and are his sources of inspiration, motivation and interestingly, information. I love those themes; that the freedom to change the world can be found in academia, and that our students are our focus.
He’s recently finished a new book, “Communication power“, which he feels will be even more influential than any of his previous works (although he kind of has to say that if he wants to sell this one).