Centre for Urban and Regional Studies Helsinki University

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Helsinki University of Technology, September 2002. Globalization Rob Shields Carleton University, Ottawa Canada

Outline PAntecedents and definitions PThe local viewpoint on globalization Phybrids, virtuality and networks PGeneric buildings and users P Branded spaces P Scales and velocities

Antecedents PMarx / Dependency theory / Functionalist modernization theory +Assume economic globalization but… -Unchallenged nation-states and -Unchanging cultural identities (eg. Amin Class and Nation 1980) PWorld-system theory (Wallerstein The Modern World System) -Economically deterministic -Notion of >world’ is phenomenological not geographical (eg. Roman Empire) -States stabilizes this process -Cultures remain distinct PPolitics, law (Rosenau Turbulence in World Politics 1990) +Multilateral institutions -States retain sovereignty in a dual system PCommunications +Global village (Mc. Luhan) +Focus on only culture and cultural industries/communications sectors

Globalization • ‘Both the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole…’ (Robertson). • ‘processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society…’ (Albrow). • Struggles over dissemination of notions of Western civility and civil society

Cultural Research on Globalization P A social process in which people become increasingly aware that the constraints of geography on economic, political, social and cultural arrangements are receding and act accordingly (Waters). §Local happenings are shaped by distant events and decisions §reflexivity and localization – Glocalization §not a uni-directional Westernization §displaces integrity of the nation-state

The View from the Local Notions of locality become harder to define… PThe local entangled with the far-off and absent. PCan’t distinguish local place from spaces of global flows PLocales are >over-dimensionally’ extended PThe local becomes less a matter of bounded, material place, (may loose its usefulness as the basis of a point of view)

Hybrids PFrom homogenization (Mc. Donaldization) to hybridization. . . PHybrids = < local-global (‘glocal’ - Bauman) < partial adoptions < reworkings of foreign forms P>Creolization’ = < comes to be ‘of the place’ < provisional and changing < not objectified, temporary

cultures have always been. . . < mixed origins, < open to the outside < in contact with other influences < no single path of development or guarantee of >progress’

Virtuality Neither global nor local are material but they are nonetheless real PThey are intangibles, abstract notions of scale and ‘virtual’ objects like memories, traditions etc. PThis accounts for the paradoxical quality of definitions of the global. P>Place’ is a hybrid entanglement of the virtual with material

Architecture and Globalization Architecture, design and planning have been important in globalization of a modern style and practices PPlace and >the local’ still defended by critical regionalists as the basis of points of view necessary for critique PEntails a series of hybrids PShift toward an interest in mobilities, flows of ideas and information as well as people (knowledge)

Globalized Built Environments PSpecific built forms characterize the emergence of a globalized space and support services of globalization < transportation < travel, < communications, < tourism and < international spectacles

Macdonaldization? Characterized by: Generic Design >Non-place spaces’ >Branded space’ >Liminality’ Generic users Object-mediated sociality

PGeneric design <often defies local conditions, < the local is merely exhibited - >staged authenticity’ < local inhabitants often excluded on the basis of class, caste and consumer lifestyles < not environmentally sustainable - focus of environmental protests P>Non-place spaces’ < total environments dominated by a devotion to mobility and movement; to the exclusion of any sense of fixity, history or local identity (Aug. J 1995) < subways, airports…shopping malls, >edge-city’ offices, hotels, vacation condominia and spas. . . < range of scales ‘Otto’ … ‘big box’ stores

PBranded spaces <copyrighted <governed by explicitly extra-architectural and extra-social considerations <serially produced like commodities. <restaurant franchises, airport terminals, sports stadia PLiminoid <betwixt and between the >local’ and the >global’ scales <Interfaces, portals, conduits <switching point between different velocities, networks

1 -way or 2 -way street? PWesternization vs. Hybridization vs. Generic space? PNow understood as a process of hybridization and >creolization' PHas implications for the frameworks in which research questions have be asked PHybrids: Nature-Society / Global-Local / Human-Nonhuman PGlobal and local are virtual objects

Local as Infrastructure l 2 orders of architecture and urban space: – Globalized (Generic) – Local (Hybrid) l The local is a type of infrastructure – a network of resources. Off-stage from most globalized architecture Takes-in and creolizes generic design A laboratory of new products, practices and ideas Needs to be recognized and accommodated l l

Issues l Access to ‘globalized’ spaces / facilities – New Social Divisions, Exclusion l l How do the disenfranchised access global flows of resources, information (democratic access policies, grey markets etc)? Sustainability of mega-facilities – Social, Economic and Environmental Costs/Benefits l How do local places, social networks support globalized spaces, events etc? l Examples of Creolization of globalized spaces