Week 10 Reading
-Manuel Castells, “Globalization, Flows and Identity: The New Challenges of Design,” Reflections on Architectural Practices in the Nineties, ed. William S. Saunders. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996: 198-205. (Xerox)
- Saskia Sassen,selections from Globalization and Its Discontents. Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money. New York: The New Press, 1998. (Xerox)
- Melissa W. Wright, selections from Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. (Xerox)
-The first three pages (and more if you want/have time - we'll watch part of the film in class), of Lu Xinyu, "RUINS OF THE FUTURE: Class and History in Wang Bing’s Tiexi District", new left review 31, Jan-Feb 2005. (PDF)
posted by Meredith at 10/28/2008 03:14:00 PM
24 Comments:
I would like to comment this week on Castells’ piece Globalization, Flows and Identity: The challenges of design. He begins by discussing the notion of globalization, by defining it as a process by which “human activity in its different dimensions becomes selectively and asymmetrically organized in interactive networks of performance that functions on a planetary scale in real time.” He then proceeds to explain the causes that led to globalization, these being the emergence of new technologies and an economic market crisis in the 70s and 80s.
The discussion quickly moves from a economic one to on that deals with the further ramifications and consequences of the globalization movement. As we are well aware nowadays, there is a wide variety of cross cultural influences in virtually all urban areas. This article deals with coming to trying to resolve globalization with the contemporary design. The discussion on architecture in the text was refreshing because it critiqued a lot of the architecture we are being exposed to and taught to admire; these amorphous blobs that have no historical or cultural context. He explains that this “naked architecture” stems from the international and “borderless” design practices that occur in architecture. He also cites architectural pastiche as a problematic occurrence that is a consequence of globalization. This is when a city/culture is replicated outside of its original context. This is neither an accurate portrayal of the city itself, nor is it authentic to the location where this type of architecture emerges.
Clearly, in Castells’ view, there needs to be more substance to current architectural design. He proposes the following 4 points. First, there needs to be a revival of local governments. Second, the reconstruction of urban planning and development of strategic planning needs to occur. Third, architecture needs to be developed that contributes to the ongoing debate about cultural dynamics into spatial forms and lastly, there needs to be an adaptation of traditional land use planning and revitalization of the logic of the dense city form.
It is my interpretation that Castells feels uneasy with the ambiguous and blurred state of culture, particularly in terms of design. In the solutions that he presents, he indicates that simply because global trade is expanding, it does not mean that cultures should lose their identities. He believes the ideal design of our time would make reference to the social, political and economic dynamics of our time. Part of his ambivalence towards globalization is that as of yet it does not include everyone and this of course leads to inequality and imbalance in our contemporary world.
It is just too much!
Between reading “Disposable Daughters and Factory Fathers” and a book entitled “Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil,” I had to treat myself to a martini! These texts are incredibly loaded with the exhausted state of women in non-western society, but specifically, the poor and underprivileged woman. What about the wealthy, well-to-do women of these societies? Could their story be a much happier one? If so, I wouldn’t mind a second of extravagance.
In China women between the ages of 18 and 24 need paternal care from their factory bosses. This paternal care takes many different forms, “they paid particular attention to the female workers’ reproductive cycles and sexual drives to help them determine how to keep assembly workers for the right amount of time, in order to maximize the value of their dexterity patience and docility before the wear and tear of production tipped the balance toward diminishing returns. (32)” During the work day the women are forbidden to talk, go to the bathroom or take a break. At night the women are locked into their dorms. I find the dissection of “paternal” to be loaded with many characteristics but not those of abusive, control, and eventual desertion.
According to Wright, “firing a worker for bad health, immorality, or pregnancy was regarded by local authorities as acceptable.” I almost assign the use of these women to that of cattle being herded through a maze blindly until they are slaughtered for their consumption. The consumption in this case takes the form of mechanical production and eventually human production through pregnancy. The woman becomes nameless, subordinate, and replaceable. Every essence of individuality is erased which in itself condones rapid replacement. Is not every light bulb the same?
The woman as abused machine.
“Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalist to quell the revolt of specialized labor.”
Marx, Poverty of Philosophy (1847)
Also; a book was just published which deals with a more personal account of the Factory Girl phenomenon in China:
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
by Leslie T. Chang
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/90330/3/Book_of_the_week_Factory_Girls_From_Village_to_City_in_a_Changing_China_by_Leslie_T._Chang
Once more a pandering to the dejected and downtrodden, the account of West of Tracks leaves much open outside of the vagaries of human emotion. Not to say that Xinyu’s translated description is not vivid and clear in producing a mental image of the scope of these films, I find myself wanting to hear more about the political and historical contexts. The desire for sovereignty that seemed so strong during Mao’s cultural revolution for some reason have a glazed over resolution (if there ever was one). In China’s quest for modernization, and their acquiescence of Western technologies (British and French Weaponry, and/or pilfered industrial complexes from Germany cum Russia and Japan), this belief that through autonomous modernization comes true success seems to have left the working poor between a rock and a hard place. China had to reject the west in order to become more like the west, in so far as producing their own version of industrialization that produces their own version of suffering. Yes, it is trying and difficult for the human spectrum of emotion, but the lessons don’t ever seemed to be learned and continue to perpetuate. Must all nations make the same mistakes? Does not the west have countless stories similar to this one? Xinyu’s account of West of the Tracks is both tragic and ironic for this reason. The documentary is captured through the guise of modern cinema yet is depicting a cultural phenomenon that, to the West, is more than a hundred years-old. It’s almost as if the industrial-urbanism that is occurring in the Third World is at best, catching up with what has already been accomplished, and/or failed in the West. On the other hand, again, it could be merely part of the learning curve that all industrializing nations must cope. I will say that one lesson that does stab through the text is how Xinyu describes the impotence of the human form when faced with the human machine. This I believe pervades our Western society in a much more perverse and sneaky way. Our dependence on the high tech products of mature industries has left not only our human forms impotent, but also our faculties. We can no longer trust our own knowledge and judgments to make accurate accounts of our experience especially when it comes to design. The lack of response to pornographic images before the detoxifying men in Xinyu’s analysis can be translated to the Western “digital laborers.” What happens when our “factories” shut down? Will the Western equivalent to Tiexi atrophy away and leave the exposed conduits of digital information as a road to nowhere, set against an equally monotonous background as the ending to West of the tracks?
I would like to comment on “Globalization, Flows, and Identity The New Challenges of Design” by Manuel Castello. As pointed out by previous blog entries Castello introduces the idea of a new globalization and its affect on the urban environment. He identifies how globalization differs today from its historical precedents due to the fact that with our new information technologies we have created a “global economy that functions in real time”. He defines globalization as an “ideological expression actually referring to a fundamental process that has taken place and that has changes our basic infrastructure, our politics, our culture, and our environment”.
Castello draws the conclusion that the city is a dense dynamic system of information and flows, and thus requires a new type of architecture that can both identify with and express these qualities of the city.
He uses the term architectural nudity to identify the postmodernist movement as an abstract, acultural, ahistoric place, and condemns the architectural styles for its abstract form and idealist nature. He describes this architecture as attempting to reflect the “meaninglessness of our historical period, or rather the meaning of its meaninglessness.” And also critiques the high cost of construction for these projects in their “attempt to make no sense”. To this point I feel that Castello critique has overlooked many of the forces behind the minimalist aesthetic of postmodern design. While It is easy for me to agree with his criticism of an “architectural pastiche: as an architecture that simply tries to reconstruct culture on the basis of tradition as a way to oppose a meaningless architecture”; I have a harder time agreeing with the notion that postmodern design is completely void of meaning. I understand that site often takes a secondary role in many of the postmodernist forms that we see today, and I also feel that we are at a point in which we need to introduce the complexity of cultural, and technological flows of the urban city into our design strategies, yet I feel that a good portion of the postmodernist pieces that Castello condemns were generated as an emergent style of the new materials and technologies of that era, and have thus become the identifiable landscape for the modern city.
This week I will comment on Manuel Castell’s Globalization, Flows and Identity. In this essay, Castells defines globalization and proceeds to break it down into all its parts. What is most interesting are the consequences of globalization on architectural design—for globalization affects nearly all sectors of society including political, cultural and symbolic. Additionally, part of Castells debate that is just as interesting are the segments of society that are excluded from the network of globalization.
Castells explains that globalization is linked to both the information technology revolution and the economic and social crisis of the 1970s. Space and time are socially determined, according to Castells, and both have been restructured due to these two events. In terms of social organizations, for example, what we are left with is the “space of flows”; the “power of flows” is the new power structure. Castells argues that these flows are the markets and the relationships/networks/alliances, not the corporations or the individual.
The consequences of globalization on design are similarly ahistorical, acultural and apolitical, in Castells opinion, as they are on social organizations. For his first design example, he points out postmodernism. Most simply, Postmodernism is a mixing of feature or “codes” from different architectural movements from the past, and thus, ahistorical.
Castells points out that the “process of globalization is segmented and selective: although it reaches the whole world, it does not include the whole world.” While globalization is extremely far reaching, not every segment of society is “plugged-in.” What this brings to mind is another quote by an author we read for class weeks ago who stated “There is a first world in every third world and a third world in every first world.”
To focus specifically on Manuel Castells, “Globalization, Flows, and Identity: The New Challenges of Design,” I found his reflection on spatial logic, in response to David Harvey, to attract my interests the most.
David Harvey said that ‘time and space are socially determined, fundamental dimensions of our experience. Space, along with time, has been transformed by the current process of technological revolution and socioeconomic restructuring. ‘ While Castells is using this interpretation of space to defend his analysis of globalization, I think it’s important to truly dissect the meaning and understanding of what ‘space’ truly is. What actually defines a space? And, in architectural terms, how can this space be manipulated and changed according to the users? How does one’s personal perspective play a role in determining and understanding the definition of space? How does space then relate to a global interpretation?
By investigating space at the local level, one can begin to expand its characteristics to the global level. Architecture defines space and controls what a user has access to, interiorly and exteriorly. Manuel responds to the “space of flows,” “From the viewpoint of social theory, space is the material support of time-sharing social practices, and it allows for simultaneity.” This is how I interpret this statement: If a person was to walk through a building, he/she will either run into someone they know at the exact same time due to unexpected locality, or they may miss them by moments due to the boundary of an architectural designed wall and never know of the possibility. This understanding of space and boundary provokes theoretical dissecting and discussing in and of itself, but the main proposal is to begin thinking how architecture begins to define space and how users are the ones who either affect or are affected by the ‘space of flows.’ More questions…how do users re-establish new boundaries with furniture? How are users defined as boundaries within a space themselves?
If I had to describe in a sentence what is my initial perceived distinction between Castells’ and Sassen’s views on new centralities in globalization it would be that while Castells’ believes these to be part of an almost organic response to growth or emergent flow of networks as a result of highly efficient technological advancements, Sassen believes these to be a continuation and more seriously growth of the criticized (top-down) ‘western’ centralized powers.
Castells still points out the “integration and segregation” and centralized powers of globalization that lead to inequalities. However his account of globalization is definitely glorified (in comparison) and opportunistic. The search for cultural (maybe even ethnic) identity is a result of homogeneity which can be attributed to globalization. As far as architectural reflections of this current condition the approaches according to Castells can be wrong by attempting to recreate a culture or completely ignoring any identity (I believe he calls it nude.) He does embrace the identity that emerges with globalization which so many of us embrace during abstract exercises that find its identity or inspiration in computational entities. So are technologies restructuring new economies and social organizations or centralized agglomerates with access to these technologies?
I thought Castells was an architect; I also read his excerpt in the package first and even though there were certain points that questioned immediately the whole thing was quite appealing to me as a student. After reading Sassen, I was confused about Castells; was he not being critical enough of globalization? I researched and found out he is a famous sociologist that has coined the term ‘fourth world’; he acknowledges these “nations without states.” But I am still perplexed as how even though both often make similar points, are still perceived so different. Is it the language that is used?
Specific points of interest on Sassen’s readings
-Geography of centrality
-Transnational politics
-Whose city is it? There are unifying capacities across national boundaries.
-Can new transnational politics be centered in the new transnational economic geography?
-Immigration (transnational political economy)
-Labor markets
-Relocation of politics due to digitalization.
-(Cities have always relied on the multiplicity of specialized activities, but it is the over valorization of these activities)
-Unlike Castells, Sassen does not accept the notion of networks as anti-agglomeration powers. These networks of information technology have actually made these more centralized and powerful.
-Unequal profit making capabilities.
-Very interesting observation that devalorization has been attributed to a growing demographic of minorities in the urban workforce.
-Global cities immense concentrations of economic power – manufacturing centers have suffered.
-Cities have typically been deeply embedded in the economies of their region…..but cities that are strategic sites are usually disconnected from their region or even nation.
-Financial services produce super profits while industrial services barely survive.
-The rights of capital in the new global grid.
-Declining sovereignty of states over their economies. Market centered economies (international) vs. -state. New claims of national states to domestic and global rights of capital. Legal regimes that are centered in western economic concepts of contract and property rights; centralized powers/ concentrated wealth and etc. (spread by imf, ibrd, gatt)
-Deregulation as denationalizing – sure globalization vs. space economy extending beyond a national realm? When it comes to people (anti-immigrant / renationalization)
-Today’s global cities are in part the spaces of post colonialism and indeed contain conditions for the formation of post colonialist discourse. Inscribed with the dominant corporate culture and (multiplicity of cultures)
-Understanding them as a set of processes whereby global elements are localized, international labor markets are constituted, and cultures from all over the world are de- and reterritorialized, puts them right there at the center along with the internationalization of capital as fundamental aspect of globalization.
-People and territory – the unmooring of identities from what have been traditional sources of identity. (ethnic)
-Martinotti (metropolis of second generation) this new city is based on success really – advanced technologies – intensified exchanges…. (fragile she says) but it is still acting as a centralized power….
The overwhelming visual difference between classes is definitely a reason for public revolt. It always has (French revolution).
-Globalization as a process that generates contradictory spaces. (Cities have always been strategic as to global capital) the disparities between poor people making claims on the city.
While reading the Castell article, I highlighted his point that “globalization does not mean that states, cultures, and territories of specific places disappear. On the contrary, the continuous search for identity-territorial, cultural, and historical-has defined a new political movement”. I think that this point conflicts, and quite correctly, with Castell’s comments on the current trend in architecture to render “abstract, acultural, ahistorical space”. Architecture is an important component of space, region, territory. How can we expect to create an identity of this larger conglomerate if one of our basic building blocks is combating it? I find Castell’s comments on the architectural form founded by globalization especially pertinent to the spirit of design at Pratt. I think it is an important critique that warns against the practice of form-making without a sense of place, which has become all too familiar to most of us in our studios especially with our computer modeling and scripting techniques. Yet I would agree with Castell’s that “architectural pastiche” is an equally if not more so troubling danger than “architectural nudity” because of the blatant disregard of both place and time. At least with the latter the digital media essential to the production of the architectural system has a temporal suggestion and desire for innovation. I know that this point that Castell is making in regards to architecture here is fairly obvious, but what is more interesting is that the two extremes on this continuum of architectural discourse haven’t really seemed to change in the twelve years since this article was first published. Shouldn’t we be making some progress?
The Chinese drive to succeed never ceases to amaze me. The expression, “whatever it takes,” comes to mind whenever I hear a story about China’s rapidly growing economy. Though I believe that most people do not criticize China for wanting what much of the developed world already has, I do believe that most will agree that the way in which they are going about it is completely unsustainable, and in some cases, unethical.
In “Disposable Daughters and Factory Fathers,” I was surprised, or rather, disturbed by how the Chinese managers greatly invaded the privacy of the female workers by routinely subjecting them to health exams. I think I found this even worse than some of the other injustices that the women were subjected to such as lower wages than the men, rules against leaving the factory or dormitory on any day but Sunday, constant supervision, and being blamed for most mistakes and product inconsistencies. Believing that women are, as Howard Li put it, “…more vulnerable than males for illness due to their reproductive cycles,” is completely absurd. But, even still, I think we should be careful about focusing too much on sexism here because to do so would be to undermine the myriad of other problems going on in China. One could argue that though men probably have it easier, they still endure long hours of grueling work for very little pay.
What I found very interesting, though, is how factory managers use and manipulate all of these many factors to run an efficient “machine.” They kept talking about the optimal 7% turnover rate, which seems to have driven their nearly obsessive nature about regulating and checking their employees. The workers are de-humanized by these factories, by the need to produce large quantities of products that stock our shelves here in the United States. Ugh, so sad.
In case anyone happens to have some free time (ha!) and would like to read a few interesting articles that deal with China’s growing/transitioning economy, I’d like to recommend two published by National Geographic, “China’s Instant Cities” and “The Manchurian Mandate.” I’ll also second Sarah’s recommendation of “Factory Girls”…..I heard an interview with Leslie T. Chang about this book not too long ago and it sounds very good.
After reading Sassen’s “Globalization and its discontents”, it reminded me to another “discontent” that maybe not so integrated to economical factors but more to loss of such called Vernacular Architecture. Once I red an article that compared “Global Architecture” with McDonalds restaurants and how a building could be created for any place. The “McDonalization” of Architecture will (it is starting to do so) make all cities aesthetically similar. The fear of the global city has always existed. For example, the “International Style” was a movement that emerged from the rebellion against classicism and neo-classicism. These architects believed that modernization needed a new style that expressed a new era. This style believed on the systematization and mass production of architecture. The Romans used the first kind of similar architecture by spreading the same architectural style all over the empire. There are two different forces affecting the hegemony of global architecture: one tries to keep the vernacularism of design by adding elements that disseminate the native architectural traditions advocating a historical continuity and the preservation of a geographic identity. The other tries to encourage the invention of new technologies getting globalized architecture. The fast spread of information and imagery makes design “global” by having similarities on projects and construction products around the world.
Let me start off this week by saying I’ve always loved reading business books. Everything from “The Tipping point and “The World is Flat” to “Barbarians at the Gate” and “Nice girls don’t get the corner office”. The reason I love reading these books is they break down fairly complex systems by using real world examples and data to support their arguments. That being said Manuel Castell’s “Globalization, flows, and identity, the new challenge of design” scared the bejesus out of me. Not because of his Marxist views or minimal understanding of how the world markets work but because he took basic ideas such as markets and competition and tried to create something new by rewording these concepts as space, flows and connections. This scares me because if the rest of his “peers” hear of this untapped resource the world is suddenly going to be flooded with books which just regurgitating known concepts. Except that they’ll be written in an academic cryptic ambiguous vague language. If this happens I may have to switch to my old reading passion, cheap romance novels.
Transitioning to Melissa Wrights “Disposable women and other myths of global capitalism”. I actually enjoyed the chapter we had to read. All that needs to be done is to replace the word woman with worker and it clearly defines how capitalism works. Carl Marx is correct when he explains the logic of capitalism. Workers are a “variable capital” whose own value does not usually reflect the value of their production. Marx disagreed with this logic but without it we could not have any form of mass production and I would be writing this with a feather and a bottle off ink.
What I would warn against in reading Wright is what we have been referring to as the Said effect. Are we imposing our western ideas on other cultures. Wright is straightforward in admitting that she did not interview the woman and quotes other writers (Farley 1998; Lee 1998, Gilmartin 1994) whom learned that “Chinese woman experience independence and renovated sense of their own worth as a result of their employment beyond the family purview.” The Chinese make no secret that the rules and supervision standards are different between men and woman. It is part of their culture and of many other cultures around the world. The question is how do we create more equality in the world? It becomes evident that it must start at home or to view in a different context the atom level. Only after equality exist there can it spread to workplaces, the molecular level and the whole of society, the organism.
The new challenges of design according to Manuel Castells, are ones of globalization, flows and identity.
He argues that globalization has transformed the sense of design practice today. He sees the results of this transformation on two levels, on one level the design field has become part of the new network of power, that cuts across territories, countries and cultures and on the other level the spatial flows have their own forms of symbolic manifestation – an abstract, acultural, ahistorical space. He goes on and argues that the postmodern architecture and the architectural forms reflect the meaninglessness of our historical period, the meaninglessness of meaninglessness and calls this form of architecture the “architecture of nudity.”
He mentions the recent architecture of Ricardo Bofill, a Catalan architect, and the works of his office in Barcelona as an example of this nude, meaningless architecture. He describes the Barcelona Airport, by Bofill, as an “absolutely transparent form that does not say anything, thus reflecting a society in which, since everything can be said, nothing matters, a society that is at the end of history, and therefore at the end of culture.”
I find it interesting that he chose an airport to describe as an absolutely transparent form reflecting a society at the end of history and culture, since airports are ports of the international globalized interconnected network of IT and transport, they rarely reflect the culture and society of the country in which they are placed. Except for the sculptures, monuments and paintings scattered in and around airports, reflecting the national/local culture and society, airports ARE transparent forms, but I cannot agree with Castells that there can be a form that says nothing, everything says something! And there is no such thing as the end of culture and the end of history!
Castells proposal for reconstructing meaning into our environment is to start using experimentation in architecture in public spaces all over the world, as a device that allows architecture to follow the diversity of society. So I took a closer look at his examples of the works Ricardo Bofill, and as an example other than the airport, I didn’t see the “architecture of nudity” in his architecture, and his approach to design doesn’t give the notion of “absolutely transparent forms that do not say anything.”
“In the desert I met the nomads, the blue men of the Sahara, people that belong to an ancient civilization. I discovered that they understood the abstract concept of space better than anybody and we became best friends.
To be an architect means to understand space, to understand space organized by man, to decipher the spontaneous movements and behavior of people, and to detect the needs of change that they might unconsciously express. It is essential to track down these issues if we want to contribute with our personal work to the history of architecture.”
- Bofill on Bofill
Maybe I could have seen what Castells was talking about if he would have included images or sketches to support his argument, the way in which architecture is best discussed.
Manuel Castells argues that the development of electronic communication and information systems allows for an increasing dissociation between spatial proximity and the performance of everyday functions. For instance, due to technological advances, individuals are able to work, shop, and even get an educational degree from home. He identifies this new form of spatial organization of power as the “space of flows”, where in recent years, social practices can be simultaneous without being physically contiguous. All of this has led to a crisis of urban civilization since cities are losing their functional necessity.
I find Castells’ argument to be rather dubious and outdated. Although technology is continually growing, so too are cities. Technology is not replacing urbanity but is instead adding to it. It is providing for a finer grain of distribution. No matter how much we can order or conduct business over the phone or over the internet, there will always remain a certain type of business that requires in- person transactions and interactions. I do not see how technology could possibly rid of all commercial/business centers that are concentrated in the city. For instance, it was believed for years that the internet would drive out the publishing business when in fact it has only increased book sales. I would argue that with technology, new business models have to be continually changed and updated. However, I find the correlation Castells makes between technological advancements and the death of cities to be too broad and thus weak.
Castells writes that architecture can save urban civilization by ‘saying something’: incorporating the debates, values, and the moving cultural dynamics of society into spatial forms. He argues that the transparent architecture of the Frankfurt business center and the airport in Barcelona fails to say something since it “reflect[s] a society in which, since everything can be said, nothing matters, a society that is at the end of history, and therefore at the end of culture’ (202). This argument I do not understand at all. I was immediately reminded of the Chicago School with Mies and Sullivan’s towering, curtain wall skyscrapers. These architectural forms were in fact a reflection of the new building technologies of the time. In being transparent, how are they not saying something? Are they not exposing the inner workings of the machine? Are they not exposing human interaction? Are they not demonstrating the importance of the city to everyday activities?
As I was beginning to construct my blog post, I was diverted by reading Nicole’s response above and subsequently replaced what I was beginning to write. I am not discrediting her position, but I’d like to oppose her argument with my reaction/perception of the significance in “architecture saying something”, as explained by Manuel Castells. While I did find certain segments of the text to be vague, this was essentially the one component that I found accurate and worthy of intellectual discussion. I believe Castells has presented a valid critique of modern and post-modern architecture as an agglomeration of sameness, creating uniformity within urban architecture. It is true that glass box, iron curtain architecture was a revelation in its purest state when initially introduced, but the massive repetition and insensitive reproductions (poorly and cheaply constructed knock-offs) that fill the typical Western metropolis’s skyline destroys dynamism within architecture.
By reinvestigating urban form via cultural, political, economical, spiritual, infrastructural and technological strategies, if intricate research and consideration is paid, a consequential architecture can be produced to directly express something influential. Architecture should be used as an instrument to generate experimentation, while additionally tackling such matters as monumentality, creating public spectacles within a contemporary milieu, for example. And as a result, architecture can serve as a catalyst for literally and figuratively reshaping values and opinions of those who are affected by the architecture. Castells argues that architecture should trigger debates in order to produce a varied architecture, directly representing the particular society; this would essentially reconstruct and/or introduce new means of addressing dense city form. I think it is a very valid philosophy to view the city as a communication system that has brought together, in a spatial form, power and experience, function and meaning, knowledge and action. We have witnessed repeatedly how networks within the contemporary city have been disfigured, disjointed and generally separated in odd configurations, and architecture needs to address this in a far more responsive way. It is my standpoint that Castells provides a preliminary manifesto for designers to take into account when beginning to devise substantial projects within an urban context.
The this weeks reading of Saskia Sassen "Globalization and its Discontents" has an highly actual connection to the develpoment of the world economy in the last of weeks. The comment Alan Greenspan posted last week in the times that his deep trust in the self regulation of the market was maybe the wrong way of controlling the global capital.
The global economy needs a regulation which one induvidual country can not handle anymore.
The emerge of transnational organisations and their actors on the global stage have to invent new more powerful systems of regultion.
The Bush admistration followed a neo liberal approach of the control of the markets and the economy.
The fact Sassen mentioned that most of the markets are operating through an "regulatory umbrella umbrella that is not state centered but market centered" is in the actual global finance crisis one of the largest problems to handle.
The loss of national control discribed by the global/national duality has to be reconfigured by more actual power of a transnational controling system.
The interesting points about the Saunders text is the notion of an global economy, which works as a unit in real time.
An emerging new infrastructure of communication has routed to a higher speed of the economys
and it made them more difficult to control.
The last thing I wanted to point out is, that the process of globalization is including but segregating at the same time.
Globalization is an issue with the concepts of racism, sexism, colonialism and all the other isms possible underlying.'Disposable Daughters and Factory Fathers' is an interesting text. It notes the differences of cultural representations of women and men in the work place. This is not a work place middle class Americans would ever feel proud to call their job. We are talking about factories. These factories fuel the global economy we all profit from. I would like to discuss the current situation in Chinese factories. They are not solely comprised of a sexist enterprise. The Chinese factories in this article practice blatant sexist practices. I am interested to know more about the woman's position in society in China. Would Edward Said find this article appalling? Page 25 states, "Each of these informants expressed a belief that because I was from the United States, I would be critical of the labor practices in southern China". Of course the author would be critical of these practices. China is notorious for being an unfair, money driven factory building nation. My only question is.What kind of shoes was Melissa Wright wearing? Where were they made?
Should we not protest sexist factories by not buying their products?
In a global economy we are unable to know the exact location of the fabrication of the products we consume. Regulations on Modern Chinese workers are difficult to comprehend. I like the authors interest in further questions and research on the topic. It shows a valid topic has been discussed, but global capitalism is an issue seeded deep, affecting all the countries in the world.
Karl Marx predicted the current global situation and knew our problems would become self evident.He wrote, "The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable." The international working class must stand up and push for a change. This paper hits the issues, using feminism, which is a nice change. The stories of children working in the hot factory environmental have become cliche. I like the real interpretation of the sex-clash in the Chinese factories.
The readings for this week state the general facts of the situations we are in. Yet, we are not very aware of it. Globalization has changed our world throughout the last couple decades. I remember my mom telling her story of not having a color TV to watch until she was in her teens. When I was in middle/ early high school, none of my friends had cellular phones. The people who had mobile phones were the ones who were in businesses. However, a cellular phone started becoming a necessity when I was graduating from high school. I still remember when I was a freshman in college, a color screen cell phone was new and very expensive. Then came a camera phone. Today, 5 years from when the first color screen mobile phone came out, black and white cell phones no longer exist. The human-invented world has taken us through time very quickly to a new lifestyle. Wireless internet is available everywhere. As we have heard, the world is shrinking. All sorts of technologies have brought us closer.
Now, looking at what the articles for this week have to say shows us the other side of this digital world. At least in my experience, my friends and I, who have been fortunate enough to be on the bright side of the technology, never had much to do with the poor or the disempowered group of people. So we weren’t too concerned about it. Relating this to the article by Castells shows that the globalization does a pretty good job of segregating the dark side of this process. My examples (cellular phones) were at a very small scale but it has quite a bit to say about this. With the mobile phone becoming a must in everyone’s life when entering the age of 15, the industry has increasingly consumed more labor work. Moreover, a number of companies compete to sell their product which brings in the cost factor. They try to lower the production cost as much as they can which in turn affects those in the labor market. This is all just for the companies’ direct benefits, and the consumers’ indirect benefits. Either intentional or unintentional, it is hurting those people who are struggling to survive. I absolutely agree with Sassen on the paradox of urban system that originally intended to support its national/local economy but ended up losing in it due to globalization. People usually say that all the nations are now interconnected. It is a seamless world which makes us think of a convenient global communication system. However, looking at it from another perspective, globalization has invaded every nation’s boundary to a degree that no one feels secure, even in his/her own national boundary, any more. The definition of a private boundary within the nation and for each nation has been fussy because of this technology invasion. I also found it very striking to read a part of Castells’ article on the continuous search for national identity within this global situation. It totally didn’t make any sense to me to see ourselves invent all these advanced products and global connections to reduce gaps among countries and then try to differentiate ourselves from the others; chasing our own tails.
In the readings dealing with globalization I was interested in the idea of globalization as a response to postcolonialism, or perhaps more appropriately the extension of postcolonialism. For all the division and segregation that we find in colonialism and immediately after, globalization seems to know no bounds and has faced resistance for it's seeming disregard for identity. Everyone, and everything are under it's umbrella. Through the Sassen article I was drawn to the ideas connecting cities, globalization, postcolonialism, and the redrawing of spaces. Examining the possible connections between them began to lead towards a bit of a better understanding and helped frame our past readings on housing, specifically slums, into a larger framework. Instead of a phenomenon of migration they become (under the ideas proposed by Sassen and Castells) part of larger scenarios of redefinition and change. And instead of individual cities undergoing individual pressures, globalization and it's effects show that the increase in relationships (financial, commercial, cultural) makes urban centers connected.
Castells has also offered the idea of flows, or the space of flows to how we may visualize globalization. What is interesting is globalization's seeming challenge to architecture''s ability to activate simultaneity, or time-sharing events.(page 200) As he continues to discuss the impact of the space of flows (and disapprove of all of our studio projects) he also pulls back the debate to include a much broader picture of global relationships and interdependencies. And in the middle are cities.
What does this mean for (me) architecture?
“since everything can be said, nothing matters, a society that is at the end of history and therefore at the end of culture.” - that’s a fairly absolute statement which I absolutely disagree(d) with.
(break down)
1. There is no new idea
2. Something matters
3. Not possible to stop creating history or (re)definging culture
Space of flows and space of place – “space of flows denies people’s identitiy” : chaos, swarm, cattle, grid lock, flight/migration patterns in birds, china’s Olympic opening ceremonies. Identity is lost only thru the vantage point of the 3rd party.
Information flows without a face.
Connectivity without connection… internet…
Virtual<<<>>>(mental)<<<>>>reality
power <<<>>> (communication)<<<>>> experience
Flow<<<>>>(____verb____)<<<>>>place
Ad-lib architecture; what are we saying when we allow process to drive form...function...life?
Redefining the city based on the redefined relationships of logics (power:experience; function:meaning; knowledge:action)
Prescription: 1. Revival of local governments 2. Strategic planning based on process not form 3. Architecture with meaning – active v. reactive 4. Land-use planning
Experimental architecture in public spaces to investigate tensions between part and whole. Love this. Architecture (in/at the moment) in my mind and place is one gigantic general experiment largely focused on process. What does that mean for the product? The user?
“Flow” is a term that I hear tossed around a lot in studio so I’m glad that Manuel Castells tackles the idea and frames it for us. To me, the word flow is associated with movement, fluidity, transformation, flexibility, life, and evolution. Castells gives this flow a framework or a physical space for this movement, these processes, to operate. Essentially, this space – the space that electronic currents that act as connectors occupy - is physical, yet invisible. While this space seems intangible and almost absent, the flow passing through it exerts an amount of power and influence over the physical environments, cultures, and political realms that it moves through. So much so that Castells suggests that urban civilization is at a crisis due to the weakening (or breaking as he claims) systems of communication. It is the power within electronic circuits that is being strengthened.
The question is what effect does this shift of power have on architecture and the spatial forms that constitute the city? For Castells, the ‘architecture of nudity’ is one demonstration “of the spatial flows that try to reflect…the meaninglessness of our historical period or, rather, the meaning of its meaninglessness” (201). What on earth? He’s got me stumped here. Does Castells infer that this meaninglessness is a consequence of the “abstract, acultural, ahistorical space” that has emerged as a powerful actor in the global realm?
Castells references the architecture of Ricardo Bofill (as well as many of the urban interventions in Barcelona) as examples of architectural forms that reflect the "insignificance” of our historical period. According to the firm’s philosophy, Bofill’s firm joins “architects, engineers, planners, sociologist, writers, musicians, movie makers and philosophers…dedicated to analyzing the problems of the city, its people and their relations; the design of alternative architecture, of regional-critical architecture revolutionized the XX century modern urbanism and architectural scene with revolutionary designs that became prototypes and unique icons across the world.” I view this description, per Bofill’s philosophy, as opposing Castells’ assertion that they ‘do not say anything.” Instead, it seems like the appropriate group of individuals to try to reflect an ever dynamic human movement and transformation three dimensionally and architecturally. Maybe I should have faith that my particle systems can do the same.
Castells writes, “this process of globalization is segmented and selective”. He explains that areas with "valued" segments of globalization are included while others are simply excluded and he lists the American regions the Bronx and Baltimore working class wards as examples of bounded areas detached from globalization. He defines globalization as “the process by which human activity in its different dimensions becomes selectively and asymmetrically organized in interactive networks of performance that function on a planetary scale in real time”. From this definition I understand the phrase human activity to mean actions that produce something useful. I also relate the middle of the definition, the main idea, ultimately meaning communication, and the later part of the sentence positions the term in a world-wide scale. What does it mean to not be included in the process of globalization? What characteristics does a city have or lack in order for the rest of the world not want to have access to its resources? Is it because these cities do not have any productive resources to offer? Is the Bronx used as an example because its population consists largely of poorer communities that may not have the monetary resources to produce anything worthy of a global network? If so why does he designate the Bronx and not other boroughs of New York City, each with poor neighborhoods? Castells also describes globalization as having to do with information, which would in that case interfere with his example of the Bronx because of Manhattan College and other private and prestigious secondary schools that are located in the Bronx. In his example of "Baltimore working class wards" is he suggesting that conservative working class areas are not included in globalization because it unlikely that innovative information will come out of these areas? Or perhaps it is because a working class community revolves around learning a trade and not seeking out higher education? By making a statement and listing examples without explanation one can infer why these cities are cut off from the global grid of communication, but these inferences have quickly lead to destructive stereotypes that inhibit me from further understanding globalization. I realize that this paragraph’s purpose is to point out a fault of globalization, but perhaps Castells should have continued this section of his essay to answer the questions; why areas are excluded from the global network? Who has the responsibility and power to design the network to include and exclude regions? He speaks of globalization as an overall idea, then he goes far enough in his critique to give it individuality by naming these select cities, but going further and giving more individuality would help to ground the larger concept of globalization. He is asking architects and urban planners to invent a new style and techniques to answer globalization, but architects and urban planners design site specifically and a breakdown of the idea of globalization would help to realize the components of the larger concept and design responses to globalization on the scale of specific sites and cities.
I can’t help but be furious after reading Castells “Disposable Women”. Furious at the rationalization that these factory mangers use to justify their actions, which even the hint at, are completely frivolous. There is the constant reminder that they are in essence fathers amongst these women…. Woman in the interpretation as being frail creature that must be looked after on a constant basis for they have mental means to care for themselves… you know the kind of thinking that would get you kicked in the (… insert appropriate anatomical location here..) and rightly so. What is interesting and disheartening about this article is how it is told to us, through the worlds of the interviewer but straight out of the worlds of the interview on behalf of the subject. A subject perceived as not capable of having her own voice. But why is the women being “protected” and “sheltered” so that she may be slowly destroyed, destroyed in a way that is beneficial for the destroyer and therefore the act is not perceived as attrition but as an opportunity. Basically what I see in this that the mangers found an easy way to justify there total rule over these people by linking for what all intents and purposes is slave labor to the power structure of the traditional family. They superimposed an artificial hierarchal structure onto those naive enough to be governed by it in order to achieve their goal. … excuse me, but what utter bullshit. I guess I have an outsiders point of view on this, but how is viewing a human being as a commodity that needs to be replaced every two years due to wear and tear seen as being a good farther to naïve daughter. The managers of these factories, factories that produce good for a world that they hardly know are using their traditions and beliefs as a means of manipulation to compete with the world away from them. But I guess one cannot be completely surprised that people would use a means common to them to address a new problem, strict order an obedience taken from the factory and placed in the factory.
The part of these situations that I always grapple with are my own internal beliefs that are once again my outsider stance on a problem that I hardly know. This is my attempt to cover myself for thinking, can I necessarily feel bad for the person that allows such atrocious to happen to them… that’s right I said it. Isn’t this in some fashion the fault of the worker for allowing themselves to be exploited? Of course I base this on the belief that they are aware that they are being exploited. Maybe this is case of they don’t realize what’s happening to them because they have no means of realizing it. If a has been taught to be obedient and respectful from the time that she was girl all the way up to now than what is there to allow here to question this. The most hardcore part of me would say that her own self respect would make her question the “legitimacy” of those around her to impose there will upon here… but then again I guess I am stating, as I believe Catell, a western stance to a nonwestern issues. But then again it is kind of a non western issue for the action being preformed and in the act of facilitating the participation in western society, exploitation as the means of producing a boat motors by, hopefully, people who would be unwilling to be connected to this brutal treatment. So I guess the ultimate question would be… at what point the boarder get crossed from one societal belief structure to another, and/or does at this point on interconnectivity a clear boarder still exist. Do I as an outsider have the right to question the actions of those detached from my belief structure?
I write this rant about my “furiosity (yes I know that’s not a word but it kinda cool nonetheless) from a computer that was most likely assembled (in some respect) under similar conditions, so as a participant can I be outraged…
Catch 22… a good book
Apologies for posing this so late, I got caught up in election mania
Castell's discussion about globalization makes sense generally but then his departure into architecture of meaninglessness confuses me a bit. From his description, it seems like he's suggesting that an architecture with no discernible feature is somehow reflective of the society around it?
If can go there, maybe glass buildings can literally reflect the surrounding area although it seems like uninteresting argument considering there are examples of the crystal palace botanical gardens which shares similar feature of reflectivity but is clearly part of another era. If Castell is trying to make some comparison to industrial age leading to the meaninglessness in architecture it isn't very definitely articulated. The examples of the business center of Frankfurt or Barcelona airport seem pretty conventional although i admit i don't know a lot about them and he doesn't reference them clearly so I'm not even sure what I'm looking for. He then continues "since everything can be said that nothing matters"--and then from that that society is at the end of history and culture? The following paragraphs talk a bit about the reaction to the naked architecture which I guess we can call a form of regionalism of adding local detail in a Pastiche that is really more of a surface treatment. Which is okay but I'm still unsatisfied with the explanation of the meaningless to reflective to nothing matters to an end of history.
Castell later goes on to the topic of architecture needing to say something if it is to maintain its cultural counteroffensive which seems to relate to the naked architecture which says everything and thereby doesn't matter?
All in all while I don't mind reading this article, something just doesn't add up properly or perhaps I'm missing a few pages of the article which goes more in depth these rather dramatic leaps.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Post a Comment
<< Home