Notion Spaces and exchanges

Geographically, our world has never seemed smaller as transportations and telecommunications have accelerated the rhythm of exchanges between different areas. All societies are somehow defined by the geographical and symbolic space they occupy and how they open up these spaces to what lies farther away. Through trade, conquest, emigration and communication, nations have always been influenced culturally, economically, politically or scientifically.

We may wonder to what extent communications influence people’s lives.

Firstly, I will consider the positives effects and then I will talk about the negatives one.

Firstly, I am going to approach the good aftermaths of exchanges.

Some artists, such as authors or singers, use technological progress to convey messages and influence their audiences. Indeed, Jane Austen is the English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. In her book “Pride and Prejudice”, she denounced the women’s conditions in the 19’s. As a matter of fact, because of the entail system, women could not inherit the estate from their father. Thanks to nowadays communications, her ideas were able to spread culture through her novels, which inspired cinematographic adaptations.

Furthermore, Charles Dickens is known for being novelist, he was also the most vigorous and influential voice of the working classes. It was in the course of giving a talk in Manchester in this large industrial city, that the idea came to him that the best thing he could do by way of calling public attention to the horror of a governmental report, would be by writing a story, rather than an article. That’s why, he wrote “Christmas Carol” to denounce the poor and horrible works conditions of women and children in the 19s. As a consequence, his books conveyed ideas and communicated a new way of thinking.

Moreover, Katy Perry, a singer known in the entire world, can convert her political messages into songs and broadcast them as well as influence the world through the YouTube platform. She criticizes the “American Dream” in her song “Chained to the rhythm”.

I have talked about the favourable consequences, so now I will tackle imperfect issues of communication.

Secondly, the border as the boundary between two areas will sometimes be seen as protection against the other, such as the border between Mexico and the United States or, on the contrary, opening up and calling for a larger area.

The various waves of migration from and towards Ireland have fluctuated according to the economic ups and downs and have significantly been influenced by the country's attractiveness.

Nevertheless, some migratory exchanges such as those fleeing the war in Iraq or the number of illegal human migrations continue to increase from day to day.

On the other hand, money can be considered as a negative aspect of trade. It is the banks that create money and allow us to borrow money to buy a car, a house or even to start a business. However, money can then leads to the loss of space, and create many debts and crisis such as the 2008 financial crisis. We can see this through the example of the city of Detroit that has not been able to revive the economy. It has been called “a ghost city” and “Dying Detroit” due to the desertification of the inhabitants.

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