Fiction of the Network Society

1. Fiction of the Network Society Day 4: Space of Flows: Manual Castells

2. Today • Problems Network Society • Space of flows vs. space of places

3. Problems with Network Society • 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

4. 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).

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

6. Public sphere, political institutions • 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

7. These places are all linked together, and as a result are less important individually Waynesville Dayton Cincinnati Beavercreek

8. Space of flows • “separate locations are linked up electronically in an interactive network that connects people and activities in different geographical contexts” (554)

9. 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

10. Physical space is shaped by “communication, transportation, and telecommunications systems” • Thinking back to both A Visit from the Goon Squad and “Woman Hollering Creek,” where do we see this happening?

11. Space of places Mural, North Dayton Potter’s Towing, North Dayton Polish Club, North Dayton

12. Some people are left out • “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

13. Individualization • 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?

14. 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”

15. Communalism • 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

16. These spaces intersect • Problem becomes: how does one live in the space of places if one is constantly connected to flows from elsewhere?

17. Network examples • Hybrid of offline and online sociability • Change from patriarchal (nuclear) family to networks of individualized units • Network enterprise • Multicultural cities • Global criminal economy

18. Interface space of flows, space of places • Coming together around concert • Flash mobs • Spontaneous gatherings friends via text, social media

19. Virtual and physical communities work together (550) • --as in Visit from the Goon Squad • “hybrid pattern of sociability” (550) • Not “what is this,” but “why is this important”?