Mobility as a contradiction of urban space

Abstract

If we wish to study the impact of new technologies on Communication Society and its relations with urban space, it seems essential that we confront the implications of that technology in terms of the city’s functional and social equipment. In this comparison, confluences and differences are found between the modern city and that other, understood as being liquid and the result of potential mobility and real sociability within a network, making it contradictory to what is traditionally understood as a city. Recognizing those confluences in order to define their social differences and, consequently, understanding whether it is possible to talk about urban space or a city network, will be the focus of this paper: we will look at how mobility, urban space and networks are names that are used to characterize the city of yesterday and that of today. However, although these urban dimensions cannot be confused from a cognitive and social point of view, they are essential to understanding the characteristics of the network city.