Flows and Scapes - forms and modes of processes in global

politics

Global Politics

Looking at the core of Castells' Arguement

● Space organizes time in a network society● The concept of space and time are changing – the

effect of information technology and social change affected by history

● Space of flows vs. space of logic

The Role of the Global City

● The global city is “not a place but a process;” the city becomes a process as in the sense that production and consumption of services is connected by global networks

● This statement is significant: the flow of information is eroding national boundaries, physical location as a source of power is only so strong, ie shifts in global city trends

● Advanced services are the core of economic processes – all which reduce to knowledge and information flows

● Global cities give rise to regional centers and that cannot limit global city eminence to only a few select cities

Global Cities and Interdependence

● The concept of valuable space in the city changed with suburbanization; new centers increase interdependence as the process links services, production, and markets to a global network

● Territories play a subordinate role – regional centers however have restructured the global economy; regions/ localities do not disappear but rather become integrated into international networks

Why is the urban space still important?

● Cities are information-based and valubable to the center of production – firms can locate a skilled labor force and materials in the metropolitan areas

● Flexibility is key – accessing material/ labor is important

● Property is a valuable asset in the company and persoanl contact is still crucial to business

The Industrial Space

● Technology has enabled to divide the production process among various localities, while still allowing for the fabrication of a final product– This creates specialization– The labor force is primarily not affected by such

high-level manufacturing: unskilled laborers are still the bulk of employment

– “Off-shore” employment has increased global competition

– The most important information-technology centers are new – capital, labor, and raw materials aid the development

Industrial Space Cont.

● Innovation is the basis of establishing structure – this will attract firms, capital, and labor

● Established innovations compete and cooperate between regions – this gives rise to global networks

● The industrial space is constantly changing

Technology and the City

● Cities viod of their functional activities – work, entertainment, etc – will cease to exist with the onset of new technolgy– This theory seems improbable as the statistics of

teleworking illustrates the importantce of the city as a place. It is not the “end of the office,” but a diversification job opportunity that enhances population mobility.

– The commute will only get worse

Informational City

● The business center is the core of the city, linked by global networks

● Suburban areas reinforce the interdependence of different units among the system

● Suburban sprawl is unique to American culture. American cities present a differnet look to the informational city

● European cities are shaped by history and have agriculture development in the suburbs

● “Megacities articulate the global economy”

Megacities

● Megacities are globally connected and locally disconnected – in both physical and social aspects. Castells argues this as the new urban form– They concentrate world power, but they employ a

survival of the fittest mentality. Megacities link the population globally while dissolving social goups in city populations at the same time

Space and society

● Society is dependent on the metropolitan system● Spacial flows

– 1st layer: made up of electronic impulses– 2nd layer: nodes and hubs – a network links places– 3rd layer: spacial organization of the dominate elites –

those that exercise power and functions– The space of flows is blurring the relationship between

society and architecture (a sense of eroding culture)

Does the space of flows eliminate our definition of 'place?'

● A place is defined in terms of specific physical boudaries that contain self-operating functions and forms

● Does globalization erode local identity?● Castells argues that the space of flows has altered

the conception of a place – structural schizophrenia?