"An Introduction to the Information Age"

Manuel Catsells explains the new era and how technology has transformed the way people live and rely on things today. Computers and technology have completely changed ways of life. With such networks such as facebook and myspace people get get in contact with each other so easily. With all of these new webs everyone can have a say. They can comment, be heard, and voice their opinions through the internet. Castells calls this the New Age, which is a ton of optimism and opportunity for people.
A very interesting fact is that in today's way of living, in six months people acquire more information than anyone did in their entire life in the 18th century. This is because of all the computers, televisions, and prints outs such as daily newspapers. The speed of the global economy and finance has also changed. It has gotten much faster, it's much easier and quicker to transport trillions of dollars from one place to another through technology.
There is a model called the grid. This is simply dots of networks connected by lines. It is the new model of the information age. It represents capital, information, and knowledge. This grid simply shows how many is everywhere within the grid and can transport very easily. Every area within and connected to this grid has money. It is very rare to be off the grid, so most cities in the world in this new age, even the poorest have internet access. Where there is internet access means there is money and capital as well. Even if some people are off the grid and doing their own things to live, urbanization and capital will overcome and absorb these peoples land, all of this land keeps expanding with capital and technology. This is the process that ever expands and ever colonizes the city and everything keeps growing together. To read deeper about Castell and his network society thoery click this link http://www.geof.net/research/2005/castells-network-society

Global Markets

Right now in society there are many things regarding Global markets and super-profits. The De-linking from actual production is what makes super-profits. As trillions of dollars are coming through and beiong transported, entrepreneurs and such are skimming the money. They are taking it from point A to point B. An example of a global financial system being used here is PayPal, which people use over the internet. Many people don't even know where their money is going when they use this system. That is why people get into debt and the next time they check their accounts they are in negative numbers. A lot of the time banks don't want to lend people money because they don't think they will be paid back and overtime they feel the dollar will be worth more if they hold onto it. This is deflation, which is that the dollar is worth more than it was a year ago, so the more you saved, the better shape you are in. Inflation is when economists say that the less the dollar is worth, the better it is for them. At a time of inflation banks are more so willing to lend out money.
Super-profits benefit specific firms. A firm that benefits from super-profits is The Lehman Brothers. Super-profits come from Globalization. The United States is the center of Global finance, which is a reason for Deterrotorialization. This is when a company moved and detached itself from everything going on. After that stage the company will Reterrotorialize which is when the company goes to a different area such as moving from the U.S. to Barbados, and that company then won't have to pay taxes.
Starting in the 1980's into the 90's and 2000's New York City is like a Disneyland, it's become a huge destination. Times Square is like the Disneyland, it is a Gentrification, the downtown area. A big idea to expand capital markets is using creative destruction. This is when they blow up and destroy their infrastructure. Here is a link talking a little more about how creative destruction is helpful...http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/09/housing-crisis.html They can then build brand new factories which are more modern and up to date. In the early 80's the Bronx was destroyed and most of it was rubel. There were also alot of abandoned buildings and open lots. This destruction is a good thing, it opens up to the possibility for value and to regenerate again. After this there are three main points. The uses of space, starts to change and it's all about cultural production. The change in perspective, the people's relationship to the space. The last is The change in the nature of the space, the reinvestment of it all.

Slums

In "Planet of the slums Mike Davis talks about the overview of the diverse religous, ethnic, and political movements of the new urban poor. Davis argues about health issues, justice issues, and social issues associated with slums. Many people don't understand what a slum is. A slum is a poor standard of living. There are five conditions that can label a place a slum. These five conditions are insecure tenure, pollution, inadequate/infrastructure, overcrowding areas, and poor housing. An interesting fact is that over 78% of people in the world lives in some type of those conditions. That percentage will most likely get higher as time goes on.
Slums are formed from a process called squatting. This is where people show up at a specific area and decide to stay there. Once you are there, you take possesion of the land, but it is not legal possesion, just physical possesion of that area. The periphery of cities is usually just dumps and rivers with no value and low value land. These are the areas where most of the people claimed and these are the areas that become the slums. Some history of this process of squatting...It dates back to the 40's, 50's, and 60's when revolutions were taking place in many colonies. Back then squatting was political and decolonized. In around the 1980's and on squatting became economic. As the population grew, each area that was claimed started to get divided. The population grew with migration and as these slum towns grew there were obviously more and more slums taking over.
Slums are a part of the process of Globalization, it is a global and globalizing phenomenon.
To read more on slums here is a recent newspaper article from March 2009...http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/03/01/learning_from_slums/?page=1

Ghettos and Ethnic Enclaves

Louis Wirth and Ceri Peach wrote about their ideas about Ghettos and Enclaves. Many different terms are strung to ghettos and enclaves. We have terms like assimilation and melting pot. An enclave is a certain amount of people living in one area, but they are not the majority. Assimilation is a process of socialization. It is when an individual or a group of people adopt some or all aspects of a dominant culture such as religion, language, norms, and values. A lot of different ethnicities come together in assimilation. Melting Pot is a way where different people of different cultures, races, and religions are combined to develop a multi-ethnic society. The term is used to describe societies experiencing immigration from many different countries. Overtime these immigrants will assimilate into the population and will lose any cultural identity that they had.
Believe it or not, the first 'ghetto people" were Jewish people back in World War II. Wirth looks at the ghetto as being tied to immigration. This following link will help you to understand more information and history on the "Jewish Ghettos" http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005059
In today's world the thought is that in the inner-cities/ ghettos is where the non-American's live, the enclaves is where more American's live, and the suburbs is where the true American's live.
There are many differences between ghettos and enclaves. A ghetto is dually segregated which means most of the people are African-American and Puerto Rican. In an enclave it is dually diluted which means most of the minority do not live there, it represents a small fraction of the population. A ghetto is labeled negative and is a threat(having to do with crime). An enclave is positive. To live in the ghetto it is forced and real and in an enclave it is voluntary, symbolic, and touristic.