The Space of Flows - Manuel Castells

In this text Castellis outlines a theory that the world is on its way to becoming a space of flows made up of the three following layers.

1. The space of flows is the material organization of time-sharing social practices that work through flows.
2. The second layer of the space of flows is constituted by its nodes and hubs.
3. The third important layer of the space of flows refers to the spatial organization of the dominant, managerial elites.

• Castellis talks of there being a few major control cities for example New York, London and Tokyo. will these cities loose their power status or adapt in the space of flows? New York and London may try to maintain the dominance as leaders in the global economy and the form of their inner cities will stay pretty much the same. New york due to the geography of manhattan island and London due to the rigidity of its historical context. However already seen and to continue to grow on the outer zones of these cities are dense residential districts, commercial centers and remote industrial estates, with the support and networked integration of these these centers may become more able to survive in the space of flows. Tokyo in my view has a better chance of surviving as it is already a has the make up of a continuous decentralized urbanism, if it continues to expand it may as Castallis stated merge with other cities such as Yokohama, nagoya and osaka becoming the largest urban area on the planet. this means it would loose its identity as tokyo in the space of flows and become a vast poly-centric urbanism and rely greatly as it does now on the global economy.
• The space of flows seems to suggest the death of culture, culture may become a process of efficient cultivation and evolution on multiple levels. Which indeed would be of a truer nature than the false reproduction of culture seen today.
• Architectures task may lay in this process of culture, the architect ensuring that each component of the space of flows is designed with a equal measure of Guattari’s proposed three ecologies. These are the environment, social relations and human subjectivity. If these components are well designed they will blend and perform with the space of flows and become true culture.

All Quotes taken from The Space of Flows