The Condition of Postmodernity 13 - autonomous learning

232 The experience of space and timelabour force fought speed-up and automated control tooth and nail.By the end of the 1970s, however, much of the resistance hadcrumbled under the pressures of widespread local unemployment,fears of plant closure, and co-optation into new rytms of wor.." We can track similar processes and arnve at sImIlar conclusIOnswith respect to the experience of .. spac . The incentive o. create theworld market, to reduce spatial barners, and to anlllhIate spa ethrough time is omni-present, as is the incentive to ationah ze spatIal .organization into efficient configurations of productIOn (senal organizationof the detail division of labour, factory systems, and assemblyline territorial division of labour, and agglomeration in large towns),circlation networks (transport and communications systems), andconsumption (household and domestic layout, .community ?rgar:­ization and residential differentiation, collectlve consumptIon m" cities). Innovations dedicated to the remval .of spatil barrier in all ofthese respects have been of immense sIglllficance I the hItory ofcapitalism, turning that history into a v ry geo !? raphIcal affaIr - therailroad and the telegraph, the automobIle, radIO and ele p hone, thejet aircraft and television, and the recent telecommUlllCatIons revolutionare cases in point.. . .But here, too, capitalism encounters multiple contr .adIctIons. S ..1lt1a .barriers can be r41,lced only through . t e po_ _()LEaXtlc.ularjPacesJrallys-; highays, airpri:s tIepoJ_!c.).: E.!!rtherm?r, aspatial rationalization of productIOn, cIrculatIon, and consump IOn atone point in time may not be suited to the f ,: rther accumul .atIon ofcapital at a later point in time. The production, restru tunng, andgrowth of g is a highly roblemạtIc .and ieXEen affair, held JJaCKby vast i ve tments m physIcal mfrastructurestliat cannot be moved, and socIal mfrastructures that are alwaysslow to change: The continuous incentive fo indi idal cpitalists torelocate in lower-cost or higher-profit locatIOns IS ltkewIse checkedby theSQ.sJs nLmoyement. S:0nsequently the intensification of COIpetitionand the onset of cnses tend to accelẹrate the pa. ce of £atIalrestructuring through selective and place-specIfic devaluatIs.These general trends and tensions have to be set, howeve , aga .mtI the backgro nd of divergent inte : est and class s ruggle ?smce I ISalmost invanably the case that shIfts m tempo or m spatIal ordenngredistribute social power by changing the conditions of monetaryl gain (in the form of wages, profits, capital gaiI s, and the like).Superior command over space has always been a vItal aspect of cl ss(and intra-class) struggle. In 1815, for example, Nathan RothschIldused his unrivalled information network to get the first news ofWellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, prom tly sol, andtriggered such a market panic that he could then move m to pIck upTime and space as sources of social power 233all manner of market bargains, so earning 'the quickest unearnedfortune on record' (Davidson and Rees-Mogg, 1988). caPitalists,\furthermore, are not averse to using spatial strategies in competition .with each other. The struggle between diverse railroad interests inthe nineteenth century provides abundant examples of this practice,while Tarbell (1904, 146) depicts Rockefeller 'bent over a map andwith military precision [planning] the a12t!!re.. oL-S.tr,ategicJo.cationson the map of East Coast oil refineries.' Domination of marketingI "networks and spaces remains a fundamental corporate aim, and manya bitter struggle for market share is fought out with the precision ofa military campaign to capture territory and space. Accurate geographicalinformation (including inside information on everythingfrom political development to crop yields or labour struggles) becomesa vital commodity in such struggles.For these reasons also, the ability to influence the production of(space is an important means to augment social power. In material/terms this means that those who can affect the spatial distribution ofil;investments in transport and communications, in physical and social!!'infrastructures, or the territorial distribution of administrative, poliJtical, and economic powers can often reap material rewards. The1- range of phenomena to be considered here is vast indeed - it variesall the way from one neighbour inciting another to help improvelocal property values by painting the porch, through systematicpressures by land and property developers to put in water and sewerconnections that will improve the value of the lands they hold, to theinterest of military contractors in exacerbating geopolitical tensions(such as the Cold W