The Fourth Space in the Fourth Revolution

Abstract

The Fourth Space is the concept that developed from postcolonial critique at Harvard (Bhabha), through urban studies (Soja; Oldenburg) all in the 1990s, through the 2016-19 urban studies (Morisson) and marketing projects, all the way to the works at the times of the pandemics, especially since 2021 (Hardegger). The difference between the perspectives of Morisson and Hardegger, both Swiss, highlights the gap between the pre-pandemic and current period. While Morisson talks about the fourth space that combines all the three functions: home, work, and networking-socializing in the physical, architectural sense – Hardegger focuses on the virtual space of socializing and work, often also one's family life, as an essential dimension. There is a strong argument that this movement towards distant work, online shopping, gaming, socializing as a predominant mode of interpersonal and group interaction was just accelerated by the pandemics, but most of it would have happened within the following decade (till circa 2030). The eventual end or substantial weakening of the pandemics is likely to cause certain decrease in distant work, and the other online activities; yet the new normal is going to involve smooth blending between virtual and traditional dimensions, in which human beings dwell. The reasons of efficiency and convenience in multitasking are not the only reason for blending those spheres of activities thus re-unifying one's life fractured into separate spheres during the Modern age – there are also strong environmental reasons to limit travel (including tourism), which overburdens the most popular ecosystems, car traffic and especially the air travel, which constitutes one of the main global pollutants. In order to bring the idea of blended fourth space home, we explore the main features of the Fourth Revolution. which is the information technology revolution (Floridi). We demonstrate that ontology of the virtual life is not that of an ‘unreal’; instead, virtual space becomes a substantial, even central, part of the space of our life.