Study On 'the Space Of Flows' About Manuel Castells

Twentieth Century,the spatial turn in social theory lead people to criticize society by spatial dimensions.Henri Lefebvre?Edward W.Soja?Michel Foucault?Frederic Jameson?David Harvey and some theorists illustrate the space from the view of the production of space,geography,space power,post-modern interpretation.One of them,Manuel Castells introduced network into the research of space,combining with the characteristics of the network society.He came up the concept of 'the space of flow'.Manuel Castells inherited from Lefebvre 'Production of Space',analyzed the inner logical of the space of flows.He regarded the space of flows as a dualism space logic.By the conflict and transformation between the space of flow and the space of place,local/global and grassroots/elite culture merging.There is an excluded logic operated in the space of flow:worthless area been excluded from the space of flows.grassroots occupied the public space through converging hope and anger.grass-rooting the space of flow promoted the communication between the virtual space and real space.Manuel Castells build a bridge between the virtual space and real space.Further researching the space of flow is useful for understanding contemporary culture in China.This paper including four chapters.Chapter1:Introduce the research status and experience about Manuel Castells.There are three period about Manuel Castells's academic career.The first period(1968-1983)about urban studies,the second period(1989-2005)about Social Network and the third period(2005-present)about the study of communication power The theory of Manuel Castells came from two resources:Alan Tournal and Lefebvre.Chapter2:Describe Manuel Castells 'the space of flows' theory.'the space of flows' born in Network society.There are some features about Network society:new technological revolution,social and economic reconstruction,social culture movement.'The space of flows ' consists of network nodes,dominant elite power,and valuable information globalization.Contrary,The space of flows,which is an antithetical form of community perception that most grassroots live in.'the space of flow' and'the space of place' sketched out in nowadays networked society.Chapter3:Describe the power struggle and conversion in the space of flows.Through gatekeeper and rule makers weave space network.Contact the emotions flowing space,the convergence of different needs,creating a presence in space.Emotions of anger and hope convergence in the network,gradually formed which can be converted into a space occupied by the local movement.Chapter4:Described the meaning of the flow of space theory referencing to contemporary Chinese cultural studies.Manuel Castells 's space theory helps us to better understand the development process of Chinese urban metropolis,especially the globalization process Chinese metropolis development.Its analysis of the elite and grassroots space,contribute to a better immediate Chinese urban elite and grassroots culture.