Fiction of the Network Society

Day 4: Space of Flows:Manual Castells

Problems Network Society Space of flows vs. space of places

Today

People no longer primarily see selves as part of city, nation or state; they identify as individuals or as part of limited groups

The influence of the network makes physical places less important

Both political institutions and public sphere break down

Problems with Network Society

Castells “[Metropolitan regions] become nodes in global

networks of cities. Indeed, advanced telecommunications, the internet, and fast computerized transportation systems allow for a simultaneous spatial concentration in huge areas and thus for decentralization. Therefore these systems are producing a new geography of networks and urban nodes throughout the world, throughout countries, between metropolitan areas, and within metropolitan areas” (550).

These older forms of identity gave people a “language” to connect with one another

Even if society was a group of competing interest groups (Catholics, working class, business owners), these groups could communicate because they perceived themselves as having a shared identity

For Castells, this is lost in Network Society

How do individuals create meaning for themselves in a world where people no longer identify primarily as “an Ohioan” or “a Daytonian”?

political institutions In the past, people would think of themselves as directly connected to their government—they believed that government represented their needs

Public sphere Similarly, they believed that newspapers provided them with a sense of shared public debate

Public sphere, political institutions

These places are all linked together, and as a result are less important individually

Dayton

Beavercreek

Waynesville

Cincinnati

“separate locations are linked up electronically in an interactive network that connects people and activities in different geographical contexts” (554)

Space of flows

In fact, they become nodes in global networks of cities. Indeed, advanced telecommunications, the internet, and fast computerized transportation systems (includes planes, trains, ships) allow for a simultaneous spatial concentration in huge areas. These systems are introducing a new geography of networks and urban nodes throughout countries, between metropolitan areas, and within metro areas (550)

E.g someone moving to Dayton likely from 1) Southern CA, Colorado, San Antonio—re: bases there

Space of flows

Thinking back to both A Visit from the Goon Squad and “Woman Hollering Creek,” where do we see this happening?

Physical space is shaped by “communication, transportation, and telecommunications systems”

Space of places

Potter’s Towing, North Dayton

Mural, North Dayton

Polish Club, North Dayton

“The higher the value of people and places, the more they are connected in interactive networks; the lower their value, the lower their connectivity. In exteme cases, some of the places are by-passed by the new geography of segregation. [The infrastructure of these places] reinforces their isolation/segregation” (551)

Cleofilas People cleaning up after Scotty Hausman

concert

Some people are left out

Personality—as a result of consumer culture—now reigns supreme◦ Think of “likes” on Facebook◦ How do these present you as an “individual”◦ How important is it for you to think of yourself as

an “individual”?◦ What are the ways that you symbolize your

individuality to yourself?

Individualization

Best explained by “Goon Squad,” with masses of people making their own chioces—what a character in Zero History will call “the industrialization of novelty”

Individualization

◦ Flip side: communalism—identities that give one “system of values and beliefs to which all other sources of identity are subordinated Both “Liberal” and “Christian” can function this way

“Me and my group, and my culture, and I do not know anything about the rest” (555)

City in earlier era—forced different kinds of people to mix together, learn something about one another

Communalism

Problem becomes: how does one live in the space of places if one is constantly connected to flows from elsewhere?

These spaces intersect

Hybrid of offline and online sociability Change from patriarchal (nuclear) family to

networks of individualized units Network enterprise Multicultural cities Global criminal economy

Network examples

Coming together around concert Flash mobs Spontaneous gatherings friends via text,

social media

Interface space of flows, space of places

--as in Visit from the Goon Squad “hybrid pattern of sociability” (550) Not “what is this,” but “why is this

important”?

Virtual and physical communities work together (550)