IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

92 Chapter 4
chapter, much of the world’s GDP is highly localized. Local conditions,
local trading patterns, local networks, local skills, and local culture remain
a critical success factor for the majority of economic activity in the world.
Especially if we steer them in that direction, mediascapes can improve the
resource efficiency of the places we live in.
Big business is already using mediascapes to shape the evolution of localities.
Locational data and demographic models are used by Starbucks and
McDonald’s to site new stores. Huge volumes of point-of-sale information
are mined to help firms like WalMart tune the placement of wares, even inside
stores. My proposition is this: The same kinds of software and data that
enable WalMart to locate its huge stores can be repurposed to optimize
local-area service ecologies. Flows of resources can be shaped that minimize
the movement of people and goods. New parameters can be introduced
into open planning systems—for example, that 50 percent of produce in a
shop or railway station should be local or have traveled no more than fifty
kilometers from where it was grown.
Local-area service ecologies can be further enhanced by referral and ratings
systems. Position index databases, social navigation, quick messaging,
local polling on handheld or worn devices: All these have the capacity
to combine depth with lightness in economic life in a locality. A similar
approach could optimize the siting of decentralized educational facilities,
too.
Participatory Place
In Tokyo, cement trucks sport the slogan ‘‘Begin the next.’’ When you buy
cellophane tape at the corner shop, the bag carries a slogan: ‘‘Perhaps we
are at the beginning of a new renaissance.’’ Honda’s Dio motorcycle sports
an entire text on the faring that declares: ‘‘Movement: The City is a 24 hour
stage where we act out a life. Be it day or night, we go out anytime looking
for something new.’’ Hardly surprising that they call Tokyo the ‘‘sea
of desires’’: Its citizenry revels in continuous change and innovation. 53
Change—and multiple and changing cultures—are what cities are about.
But this makes it hard to come up with design criteria.
The other downside of mediascapes and urban networks is although
we can’t live without them, they are not stable. In recent times urbannetwork
collapses have become more frequent and more alarming. A