The Space of Flows
Space of flows
Space is the
expression of society.
Since our societies
are undergoing structural transformation, it is a reasonable hypothesis to
suggest that new spatial forms and processes are currently emerging.
Spatial forms and
processes are formed by the dynamics of the overall social structure.
This includes
contradictory trends derived from conflicts and strategies between social
actors playing out their opposing interests and values.
Indeed, space is crystallized time.
From the pint of view
of social theory, space is the material
support of time-sharing social practices.
Space brings together
those practices that are simultaneous in time.
Our society is
constructed around flows.
Flows of capital,
flows of information, flows of technology, flows of organizational interaction,
flows of images, sounds and symbols.
Flows are not just
one element of the social organization.
They are the
expression of processes dominating our
economic, political and symbolic life.
The space of flows is the material organization of time-sharing social practices that work through flows.
By flows I understand
purposeful, repetitive, programmable sequences of exchange and interaction
between physically disjointed positions.
Held by social actors
in the economic, political and symbolic structures of society.
The first layer, the first material support of the space of flows, is actually constituted by a circuit of electronic impulses.
Microelectronics,
telecommunications, computer processing, broadcasting systems, and high-speed
transportation-also based on information technologies.
That, together, form the
material basis for the processes we have observed as being strategically
crucial in the network of society.
Thus, the network of
communication is the fundamental spatial configuration.
Places do not disappear,
but their logic and their meaning become absorbed in the network.
The second layer of the space of flows is constituted by its nodes and hubs.
The space of flows is not
placeless, although its structural logic is.
It is based on an
electronic network.
But this network links up
specific places, with well-defined social, cultural, physical and functional
characteristics.
Some places are
exchangers, communication hubs playing a role of coordination for the smooth
interaction of all the elements integrated into the network.
Other places are the
nodes of the network.
That is the location of
strategically important functions that build a series of locality-based
activities and organizations around a key function in the network.
The easiest type of
network to visualize as representative of the space of flows is the network
constituted by decision-making systems of the global economy.
Particularly those
relative to the financial system.
This refers to the
analysis of the global city as a process rather than a place.
Each network defines its
sites according to the functions and hierarchy of each site.
And to the
characteristics of the product or service to be processed in the network.
Thus, one of the most
powerful networks in our society.
Narcotics production and
distribution (including is money-laundering component).
Has constructed a
specific geography that has redefined the meaning, structure and culture of
societies, regions and cities connected in the network.
Thus, in cocaine
production and trade.
The coca production sites
of Chapare or Alto Beni in Bolivia or Alto Huallanga in Peru are connected to
the refineries and management centers in Columbia.
Which were subsidiary,
until 1995, to the Medellin or Cali headquarters.
Themselves connected to
financial centers such as Miami, Panama, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.
And to transportation
centers, such as the Tamaulipas or Tijuana drug traffic networks in Mexico.
Then finally to
distribution points in the main metropolitan areas of America and Western
Europe.
None of these localities
can exist by itself in such network.
The Medellin and Cali
cartels and their close American and Italian allies, would soon be out of
business without the raw materials produced in Bolivia or Peru.
Without the chemicals
(precursors) provided by Swiss and German laboratories.
Without the semi-legal
financial networks of free-banking paradises.
And without the
distribution networks starting in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam or La
Coruna.
The Architecture of the End of History
All over history,
architecture has been the “failed act” of society.
The mediated expression
of the deeper tendencies of society of those that could not be openly declared.
But yet were strong
enough to be cast in stone, in concrete, in steel, in glass.
And in the visual
perception of the human beings who were to dwell, deal or worship in such
forms.
The more that societies
try to recover their identity beyond the global logic of uncontrolled power of
flows.
The more they need an
architecture that exposes their own realty, without faking beauty.
The architecture that
seems most charged with meaning in societies shaped by the logic of the space
of flows can be called “the architecture of nudity.”
That is, the architecture
whose forms are so neutral, so pure, so diaphanous, that they do not pretend to
say anything.
And by not saying
anything they confront the experience with the solitude of the space of flows.
The message is the
silence.
Indeed, architecture and
design, because their forms either resist or interpret the abstract materiality
of the dominant space of flows.
Could become essential
devices of cultural innovation and intellectual autonomy in the informational
society through two main avenues.
Either the new
architecture builds the palaces of the new masters.
Thus exposing their
deformity hidden behind the abstraction of the space of flows.
Or it roots itself into
places, thus into culture and into people.
In both cases, under
different forms.
Architecture and design
may be digging the trenches of resistance for the preservation of meaning in
the generation of knowledge.
Or, what is the same, for
the reconciliation of culture and technology.
Conclusion
Because information and
communication circulate primarily through the diversified, yet comprehensive
media system.
Politics becomes
increasingly played out in the space of media.
Leadership is
personalized, and image-making is power-making.
Not that all politics can
be reduced to media effects, or that values and interests are indifferent to
political outcomes.
But whoever the political
actors and whatever their orientations, they exist in the power game through
and by the media.
In the whole variety of
an increasingly diverse media system, that includes computer-mediated
communication networks.
The fact that politics
has to be framed in the language of electronically based media has profound
consequences.
On the characteristics,
organization, and goals of political processes, political actors, and political
institutions.
Ultimately, the powers
that are in the media networks take second place to the power of the flows
embodied in the structure and language of these networks.
In the broader historical
perspective, the network society represents a qualitative change in the human
experience.
If we refer to an old
sociological tradition.
According to which social
action at the most fundamental level can be understood as the changing pattern
of relationships between nature and Culture.
We are indeed in a new
era.
The first model of
relationship between these two fundamental poles of human existence was
characterized for millennia by the domination of Nature over Culture.
The codes of social
organization almost directly expressed the struggle for survival under the
uncontrolled harshness of Nature.
As anthropology taught us
by tracing the codes of social life back to the roots of our biological entity.
The second pattern of the
relationship established at the origins of Modern Age and associated with the
Industrial Revolution and with the triumph of Reason.
Saw the domination of
Nature by culture.
Making society out of the
process of work by which Humankind found both its liberation from natural
forces.
And its submission to its
own abysses of oppression and exploitation.
We are just entering a
new stage in which Culture refers to Culture.
Having superseded Nature
to the point that Nature is artificially revived (“preserved”) as a cultural
form.
This is in fact the
meaning of the environmental movement.
To reconstruct Nature as
an ideal cultural form.
Because of the
convergence of historical evolution and technological change.
We have entered a purely
cultural pattern of social interaction and social organization.
This is why information
is the key ingredient of our social organization.
And why flows of messages
and images between networks constitute the basic thread of our social
structure.
Bibliography
Castells, Manuel. The
Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. 1:
The Rise of the
Network Society. Blackwell
Publishers: New York, 1996:
410-477.