Globalisation, Networking, Urbanisation: Reflections on the Spatial Dynamics of the Information Age
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47(13) 2737–2745, November 2010 Globalisation, Networking, Urbanisation: Reflections on the Spatial Dynamics of the Information Age Manuel Castells [Paper first received, February 2008; in final form, September 2008] Abstract The network society is a global society because networks have no boundaries. Spatial transformation is a fundamental dimension of this new social structure. The global process of urbanisation that we are experiencing in the early 21st century is characterised by the formation of a new spatial architecture in our planet, made up of global networks connecting major metropolitan regions and their areas of influence. Since the networking form of territorial arrangements also extends to the intrametropolitan structure, our understanding of contemporary urbanisation should start with the study of these networking dynamics in both the territories that are included in the networks and in the localities excluded from the dominant logic of global spatial integration. The network society is a global society because networks and in the localities excluded from networks have no boundaries. Spatial trans- the dominant logic of global spatial integration. formation is a fundamental dimension of In this article, I will summarise the main this new social structure. The global process features and underlying causes of the spatial of urbanisation that we are experiencing in dynamics of the global network society on the early 21st century is characterised by the the basis of previous analyses and selected formation of a new spatial architecture in our evidence (Castells, 1989, 1999, 2000, 2004; planet, made up of global networks connecting Castells et al., 2006; Hall and Pain, 2006; Dear, major metropolitan regions and their areas 2005, 2006; Graham, 2005; Sassen, 2006; Lim, of influence. Since the networking form of 1998; Broudehoux, 2004; Kwok, 2005; Lu, territorial arrangements also extends to the 2006; Hackworth, 2005; Wolch et al., 2004; intrametropolitan structure, our understand- Halle, 2003; Graham and Simon, 2001; Abu- ing of contemporary urbanisation should start Lughod, 1999; Scott, 1998; Borja and Castells, with the study of these networking dynamics 1997), in line with the studies presented in in both the territories that are included in the this Special Issue of Urban Studies. Manuel Castells is in the School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0281, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. 0042-0980 Print/1360-063X Online © 2010 Urban Studies Journal Limited DOI: 10.1177/0042098010377365 Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 27, 2016 2738 MANUEL CASTELLS First of all, a stream of research conducted urban areas, by mid-century it is likely that in the past two decades around the world, around three-quarters of the inhabitants of largely building on the old tradition of human the planet will be urban dwellers. Yet the most ecology and following the path of the pio- important characteristic of this accelerated neering work by Harold Innis, has shown the process of global urbanisation is that we are close interaction between the technological seeing the emergence of a new spatial form, transformation of society and the evolution which is given different names depending of its spatial forms (Scott, 2001; Sanyal, 2003; on diverse analytical perspectives. I call it Graham, 2005; Mattos et al., 2004; Hawley, the metropolitan region to indicate that it is 1950, 1956; Innis, 1950, 1951). We know that metropolitan but it is not a metropolitan area, technology is not the determinant factor of because usually there are several metropolitan this evolution. Nonetheless, microelectron- areas included in this spatial unit. Peter Hall ics-based information and communication and Kathy Pain (2006) call these areas the technologies have been shown to facilitate the polycentric megacity regions on the basis of digital networks that support the diffusion of their empirical study on recent metropoli- the new social structure, as the electrical grid tanisation in western Europe. The polycentric and the electrical engine supported the expan- metropolis, or the metropolitan region, arises sion of the industrial society (Mitchell, 1999; from two intertwined processes: extended Hughes, 1983). We also know that in the age of decentralisation from big cities to adjacent information and communication technolo- areas and interconnection of pre-existing gies, in sharp contrast with the predictions towns whose territories become integrated by of futurologists, we are not witnessing the new communication capabilities. This model end of cities or the annihilation of distance. of urbanisation is at the same time old and Instead, we are in the midst of the largest wave new. In Hall’s and Pain’s words of urbanisation in human history. There is an increasing concentration of population It is a new form, [including] anything between and activities in urban areas and in major ten and fifteen cities and towns, physically metropolitan areas. In 2008, we are expected separated but functionaly networked, to cross the 50 per cent threshold of urban clustered around one or more larger cities, population on the planet, which is 3.3 bil- spatially separate and drawing enormous lion people, according to the United Nations economical strength from a new functional Population Fund (2007), with over 1 billion division of labour. These places exist, both as separate entities in which most residents work living in squatter settlements, particularly in locally and most workers as local residents ... the metropolitan regions (Neuwirth, 2005). and as a functional region that is connected Projections from the same UNPF report by networks of transport and communication estimate that the number of urban residents processing flows of people, goods, services, in 2030 will reach 5 billion, of whom 81 per and information (Hall and Pain, 2006, p. 3). cent are expected to live in developing coun- tries, including one-third of slum dwellers. The transport and digital communication By 2030, the majority of the population on infrastructures, including wireless com- all continents, including Asia and Africa, munication systems, are the nervous system will live in urban areas. South America is of the polycentric metropolis (Rutherford, already 80 per cent urban and Europe and 2004). I would also add that in most cases, North America are approaching 80 per cent. with some exceptions (for example, Toronto Looking ahead, by simple extrapolation and Jakarta), there is no institutional unity in of current trends of population growth in these metropolitan regions, leading to political Downloaded from usj.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 27, 2016 GLOBALISATION, NETWORKING, URBANISATION 2739 unaccountability and chaotic planning for century the metropolitan regions are a universal these mega human settlements. urban form. In the US in 2005, the Urban The metropolitan region is not just a spa- Land Institute identified 10 megalopolitan tial form of unprecedented size in terms of areas housing 68 per cent of the American concentration of population and activities. population (cited by Hall and Pain, 2006). Yet, It is a new form because it includes in the the largest metropolitan areas in the world are same spatial unit urbanised areas and agri- in Asia. The largest one is a loosely connected cultural land, open space and highly dense region that extends from Hong Kong to residential areas: there are multiple cities in Guangzhou, incorporating the manufacturing a discontinuous countryside. It is a multi- villages of the Pearl River delta, the booming centred metropolis that does not correspond city of Shenzhen, on the Hong Kong border, to the traditional separation between central and the adjacent areas of Zhuhai and Macau, cities and their suburbs. There are nuclei of each one with a distinctive economy and different sizes and functional importance polity, fully interdependent with the other distributed along a vast expanse of territory components of this south China metropolitan following transport lines. Sometimes, as in region, with a population of approximately 50 the European metropolitan areas, but also million people. This pre-figures the megapoli- in California or New York/New Jersey, these tan future of China. During my conversations centres are pre-existing cities incorporated in Beijing in November 2005, planning offi- in the metropolitan region by fast railway cials of the State Council reported their plans and motorway transport networks, supple- to organise China’s metropolitan growth by mented with advanced telecommunication 2020 into 10 major metropolitan regions with networks and computer networks. Sometimes 50 million dwellers each. In fact, the south the central city is still the urban core, like in China region has already reached that size London, Paris and Barcelona. Often, how- and Greater Shanghai in 2007 was home to ever, there are not clearly dominant urban over 30 million people. These metropolitan centres. For instance, the largest city in the regions will constitute the heart of the new, San Francisco Bay Area is not San Francisco increasingly globalised China, the manufac- but San Jose. Yet, San Francisco remains the turing centre of the world in the 21st century. key location for advanced services, while the These ‘cities’ are no longer cities, not only main economics basis of the region (Silicon conceptually but institutionally or cultur- Valley) is neither in San Francisco nor San ally. In fact, they do not even have a name. In Jose, but in between. In other instances, like the place where I live now, Los Angeles, the in Atlanta and in Shanghai, the new centres only people who call it Los Angeles are either (North Atlanta, Pudong) are induced by the visitors or the minority of people inhabiting fast growth of the metropolitan region to the city of Los Angeles (about 3.5 million), host business, services and population that in contrast to the rest of the inhabitants of a gravitate towards the dynamism of these southern California metropolis of about 20 metropolitan magnets.