Postmodern City Films

& Global Flows

Introduction
2014/09/16
Outline
Starting Questions
Global Flows and Urban Space of
Flows
People in Flows: Flaneur &
Migrant
Summary
About the Course & Next Week

Global Flows?

Globalization:
3 Theses
1) Global expansion of
Capitalism and Capitalist
Culture; of
American/Western Culture
2) West vs. East
3) Increasing Hybridization
and Strangeness

The world is
shrinking;
the world is
growing smaller."
Re-structuring of Global economy,
politics, activist groups, etc.
Awareness of Global Connectedness
Connected by Global Flows
Flows of goods, services and finance
Flows of people the most limited
Flows of data and communication
knowledge-intensive flows;
labor-intensive flows
Impact:
1/3 of goods flow across national borders;
left behind if not being connected.

Ref. Global flows in a digital age: Expanding
Network of Global Flows
De-Territorialized and Re-Territorialized by
Cultural Flows
Modernity at Large (Arjun Appadurai)
mediascapes
ethnoscapees
technoscapes
financescapes;
ideoscapes.
With conjunctions and disjunctions in
and among them, with shapes changing
or amorphous
Space of Flows
Flows: purposeful, repetitive,
programmable sequences of
exchange and interaction between
physically disjoined positions held
by social actors in the economic,
political and symbolic structures of
society (Castells 1996: 412)
e.g. information, goods, people--
whatever travel in information
systems, telecommunications, and
transportation lines
Space of Flows (2)
Manual Castells: Network Society and
Space of Flows
3 levels of flows:
1. The flows of information (electronic
communication)
2. The network of nodes (; e.g. mega-
cities like Taipei) and hubs (; e.g.
station, airport, port and
telecommunication system)
3. Transnational Elite groups (decision
makers, entrepreneurs and technicians)
Space
of
Flows
Space
of
Place
G
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F
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H
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I
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Flows/Space vs. Place

Loss of identity?
Flows on Different Class
Levels
Different purposes
Different degrees of mobility, risks and
stability

Chance encounters and coincidences
A different sense of community

Flneur
Flneur: a stroller on the street
As such, [i]t is not the pedestrian
flneur who is emblematic of
modernity but rather the train
passenger, car driver and jet plane
passenger (Lash and Urry, 1994:
252).

Paul Gavarni,
Le Flneur, 1842.
image source
Urban Migrant
Immigrant of all class levels
Rural-Urban Migrant laborers
Summary: Scapes and
Flows
1. Space organized by five types of
scapes (media, ethno, techno, ideo,
finance)
2. Flows: a general feature in
postmodern society (caused by
technologiesesp.
telecommunicationmultinational
capitalism and global migration).
3. Five kinds: people and traffic, goods,
information, virus and desire.
Summary: Possible Issues
1. Different or old geometry of power?
a. People with different degrees of
mobility;
b. the global vs. the local in the uneven
flows of goods ();
2. Loss of the local: Compression of
time and space (space virtualized or
non-place)
3. risk factors
4. Loss of stable relations and identity
Course Site:
Lets Take a Look
Next Week:
The World by