Panta rhei? Space of flows in the era of anthropocene and outlooks into a multi-coloured future

Hans-Peter Meier-Dallach,Gunter Heinickel

doi:10.7163/eu21.2018.34.3

Abstract

The modern social, economic and communication flows change profoundly the development of spaces, their borders and boundaries, and affect the channels of flow between regions and the national, transnational and global society. The paper offers a reflection about the developments at the top of geographic and social scientific research as well as a reference to the agenda of spatial planning and politics. Therefore this article focuses on theoretical aspects of the “fluid society” but emphasizes also the need to learn from empirical insights and practical issues in the context of Polish-Swiss cooperation projects. It concludes however, that regional spaces under the auspices of modern flows are not unicoloured. That wants to say: they are not passive entities of modernisation, but keep their manifold, multicoloured characteristics – and these characteristics interact in the form of identities, cohesion and the natural backdrop with significant effects on those flows, enabling and steering modernisation strategies, and deciding about successes or failures of investments into traffic, tourism and economies. By that they shape the flows from and into peripheral regions.

Highlights

The principal theme formulated by the Warsaw Regional Forum for the conference of 2017 radiates around the observation about how the flows of capital, information, technology, notions, sounds and symbols shape the spaces of economical and political activities
The question is, how do new multicoloured facets spring up against the assumed reality of the uniformity of the virtual worlds? And how do these facets express themselves in various contexts, countries, in peripheral regions and active groups in societies? For that we want to propose the combination of two conceptual approaches by which these processes can be identified and illustrated
It is evident that these reactions or responses relating to the various landscapes can be assigned to a scale, ranging from revitalization, organic innovation, incremental or radical innovation. The strongest of those floating drivers are active in the traffic/mobility landscapes: technological innovation, the nexus of transport and mobility by IT, IoT or the “smartification” of the world enables and accelerates simultaneous communication on all levels. We discuss this concept with specific reference to the experiences of recent Polish-Swiss cooperation projects in the south-eastern regions of Poland, funded by the cohesion funds (Ein Bild Polens 2017; Zürcher & Meier 2017)

Summary

Introduction

The principal theme formulated by the Warsaw Regional Forum for the conference of 2017 radiates around the observation about how the flows of capital, information, technology, notions, sounds and symbols shape the spaces of economical and political activities. While considering regional counter-effects on the drive of the modern vector it would be too simple to state a plain dichotomy between such “innovative factors”, caused by outside forces like technical development and infrastructural interventions, and local recursive forces, solely slowing down and “breaking” these linear forces of modernisation.

Results

Conclusion