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

Outline P Antecedents and definitions P The local viewpoint on globalization P hybrids, virtuality and networks P Generic buildings and users P Branded spaces P Scales and velocities

Antecedents P Marx / Dependency theory / Functionalist modernization theory +Assume economic globalization but… -Unchallenged nation-states and -Unchanging cultural identities (eg. Amin Class and Nation 1980) P World-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 P Politics, law (Rosenau Turbulence in World Politics 1990) +Multilateral institutions -States retain sovereignty in a dual system P Communications +Global village (McLuhan) +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… P The local entangled with the far-off and absent. P Can’t distinguish local place from spaces of global flows P Locales are > over-dimensionally’ extended P The local becomes less a matter of bounded, material place, (may loose its usefulness as the basis of a point of view)

Hybrids P From homogenization (McDonaldization) to hybridization... P Hybrids = < 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 progress ’

Virtuality Neither global nor local are material but they are nonetheless real P They are intangibles, abstract notions of scale and ‘virtual’ objects like memories, traditions etc. P This 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 P Place and > the local’ still defended by critical regionalists as the basis of points of view necessary for critique P Entails a series of hybrids P Shift toward an interest in mobilities, flows of ideas and information as well as people (knowledge)

Globalized Built Environments P Specific 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

P Generic 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) edge-city’ offices, hotels, vacation condominia and spas... < range of scales ‘Otto’ … ‘big box’ stores

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

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

Local as Infrastructure 2 orders of architecture and urban space: – Globalized (Generic) – Local (Hybrid) 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

Issues Access to ‘globalized’ spaces / facilities – New Social Divisions, Exclusion 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 How do local places, social networks support globalized spaces, events etc? Examples of Creolization of globalized spaces