Revisiting Castells' Take on the City and the Informational Age.

This paper reappraises the two papers of Manuel Castells published in this journal in 1993 and 2002. This appraisal considers the context of his academic career and formidable body of work, the historical period in which the papers appeared and the general discussion on the transformation of cities and societies in academia. Although his legacy is now strongly coloured by Castells' later shift to information and communication, his contributions to cities should not be neglected. Commonalities and differences between the two papers at issue here are summarised. Despite shifts in personal positions of the author and socio‐economic positions of the studied cities, commonalities largely prevail. Their footprint in the academic literature is indicated by a discussion of cities and the world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]