Go With The Flow: Castells and the Importance Of Space and Place
Have you ‘exhausted’ the plethora of online methods with which one can engage and build community, and yet failed to materialise any gains in your network, in terms of scope, sales, participation etc? ‘We’re doing all the right stuff, we’ve made everything look fancy-pants, we have a coherent online presence, a thought-out posting strategy, an appropriate brand voice, competitions etc etc but we’re not gaining any traction’.
I would like to suggest that in some cases, the novelty and variety of methods to engage with people in the online space can lead to neglect of physical space. I want to explore the interaction of space and place within the context of Manuel Castells’ theory of the network society.
Manuel Castells is a mighty fine thinker within the Social Sciences. His theories cover wide ground, but for the purposes of this article I will focus on his ideas relating to ‘The Space of Flows’; this concept forming a part of his wider discourse on the Network Society (which I absolutely recommend- it’s very accessible for most readers with a sturdy noggin).
According to Castells, flows are streams of information that constitute the organisational logic of our networked society. Think of a face-to-face conversation as a flow of dialogue. With computer mediated communications, this dialogue is digitised, and thus becomes a flow of information, freed from the spatial constraints typical of a ‘real-world’ conversation i.e. the need to get two people together in the same location. Other things would include capital (transactions, virtual currencies), digital services, digital media etc.
‘By flows I understand purposeful , repetitive, programmable sequences of exchange and interaction between physically disjointed positions held by social actors in the economic, political, and symbolic structures of society.’ (Castells, 2004 p.442)
So what is the ‘Space of Flows’? The Space of Flows is constituted by three elements, as per Castells:
- -the places where activities (and people enacting them) are located,
- -the material communication networks linking these activities, and
- -the content and geometry of the flows of information that perform the activities in terms of function and meaning.”
(Castells, 2004, p.36-7)
Castells ties the concept of space to social practices; spaces are articulated through the time-sharing practices which we as individuals (social actors) partake in. Space is the material support of these practices, a platform upon/within which communities are situated, e.g. a market square, a social network.
“ …space is a material product, in relationship to other material products – including people – who engage in [historically] determined social relationships that provide space with a form, a function, and a social meaning.“( Castells, 1972: p152 )
Places- tangible, ‘real world’ places, are not autonomous from information flows. In fact it is the concentration of flows of information which influences and articulates the presence of places for social activity and exchange e.g. University campuses, highly technologised centres of innovation such as our very own Silicon Roundabout, and most obviously, the cities of developed nations (London, Tokyo, New York). So, going back to the example of a client who isn’t having much luck building upon a pre-existing community, I would suggest that the role of physical places is being neglected.
Online activity needs to be balanced with offline activities and events. Online communities are fortified by their coming together in real space. Artists have it easy, as gigs tend to occupy a central position within a given campaign. But brands of course can also leverage physical places via experiential events, and this is actually a major benefit of partnering with a performing artist, music or otherwise. Brands can leverage affective experiences and thereby imbue their image (or that of their products e.g. alcohol) with the feelings associated with a given event (e.g. festivals).
Castells emphasises the dangers presented by dislocation between the online space of flows, and the tangible space of places, suggesting that a schizophrenic split between the two is possible, without due care and attention to both aspects:
“The dominant tendency is toward a horizon of networked, ahistorical space of flows, aiming at imposing its logic over scattered, segmented places, increasingly unrelated to each other, less and less able to share cultural codes. Unless cultural, political, and physical bridges are deliberately built between these two forms of space, we may be heading toward life in parallel universes whose times cannot meet because they are warped into different dimensions of a social hyperspace.” (Castells, 2010 p.458-9)
The take away: if you’re not gaining any traction with your various social media endeavours, question whether you’ve been neglecting the offline world; look to innovate ways of getting your online communities together in a place which encourages the nurturing of relationships between participants, and your brand.
Works Cited:
Castells, M. 1972. The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach
Castells, M. 2004- The Network Society
Castells, M. 2010- The Rise of the Network Society
