Daniel Kaplan - Portail documentaire du Ministère de l'Ecologie

Tne network and the city: urban places in virtual spaces
have to transfer their services from the office to the
Internet. In this context, the analysis is based on my
interpretation of the virtual experience via the net.
This popular utopian aspect of substitution and
transcendence (Graham 1998: 167) can be connected
to many familiar aspects of human life and therefore
also be broadcasted as a “holy word” to the masses.
Zukin (1995: 262) defines three characteristics of
urban public space: proximity, diversity and accessibility.
Another approach is to define more theoretical
ways in which public and private have been conceptualised
in debates. The first approach is based on a
liberal-economic vision and the public sphere is
associated with state administration. The private
aspect is the global market economy. The second
approach can be called the republican-virtue model,
and it sees the public as a community and its citizenship,
while private relates to state sovereignty. The
third way to conceptualise the issue is to assess public
and private in terms of social relations. In this sense,
public refers to self-representation. The final
approach is the feministic one, where public is seen as
a state and economy, and private as family and
domestic (Robbins 1993; Staeheli 1996). The dualistic
nature of these terms has also been under critique.
Staeheli refers to Collins (1986) and Scott (1990) who
argue that the dichotomous construction of what is
public and private leads to neglect of the private,
because it is defined as what public is not – as the
other. Public and private spheres are not absolute
concepts, and therefore the dualistic approach must
be questioned. The more appropriate approach
would be to see public and private as they relate to
each other. Public would be seen in relation to private
– and vice versa. These relations can be thought of as
a continuum, within which activities and the use of
space are constructed (Fraser 1992: 137).
Two opposing views on the significance of
public spaces and their importance to public
behaviour and life in the city are commonly
identified. Sennett (1994) argues that the loss of the
relevance and power of the public sphere is evident.
The loss of confidence in the public sphere has
diminished the community experience, as individual
attitudes and individualism continue in their
triumph. This leads to spaces of abstract freedom
with no enduring human connections. The opposing
view to Sennett’s approach is one supported by
Ethington (1994), who argues that the public sphere
is constructed through a history that is equally
important compared to the histories of state and
private interests. Ethington sees that the urban
politics of the period of his study (1850-1900)
respond to the changes in the public sphere, and that
can be regarded as a means of explanation.
Therefore, the public sphere has significance in the
construction of urban theory.
There has been a wide range of academic
writings concerning IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
services and their direct affects on face-to-face
communications. Reference is also made to the
indirect consequences, caused by the differentiation
in these interactions, to the public space and public
participation (see Lash and Urry 1994; Rheingold
1994; Robins 1996). Elwes (1993: 65) concentrates on
analysing the expansion of computer technology and
the public space through the notion that people are
stuck in their homes and that outside contacts no
longer have the same importance as earlier. This
comment refers to the atomisation of the public
sphere: individuals are to become atomised entities
behind their monitor screens and incapable of participating
in politics or public life in face-to-face
conversations (Lajoie 1996: 154). This view is also
supported by Lanier and Biocca (1992: 157), who
argue that ”we are living in a little bubble” created by
computer networks and information technology. The
use of these new and ever faster growing technology
networks and devices causes people to create new
virtual worlds and new kinds of social relations.
Considering the earlier arguments the Internet and
the WWW (World Wide Web) should not be seen as
the destructor of face-to-face conversation or an
indirect demon undermining individuals’ political
participation. This view has also been supported by
Poster (1996: 83).
The significance of the impact that ICT has on
urban structure is often exaggerated. For example,
correspondence has been around for a long time,
and the electronic versions of it are only expanding
the scale and speed of these interactions. The
material substitution is based on the hype created by
mass media and companies providing Internet
services. Secondly, causal reasoning and the trap of
generalisation should be avoided by questioning
simple cause-effect ideas of societal change.
Internet-sites are, in the commercial sense, products
and their providers’ backgrounds should be
acknowledged.
Virtual cities and urban image
representations
The theme of using the Internet as an urban
image promoter relates to the marketing side of
technology. The Internet as a global network can be
used as an efficient route for bringing knowledge of
the unique characteristics of the city, and the
theoretical foundation is based on the evaluation of
technology as a tool to achieve the set goals. In this
respect, the role of IT is in fact the slightest one
compared to the earlier themes of discussion.
However, there are considerable differences in the
use of the Internet in relation to place promotion.
The use of built city environment in a
marketing strategy is one of the most widely used
methods of creating a mental idea of a urban
location. The Internet has become an efficient
media to provide this attractive information to
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